The most eminent member of the family - Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841), a prominent figure of the Polish Enlightenment, writer, historian, memoirist, publicist, translator, as well as soldier and politician - was born and spent his childhood in Skoki, situated on the Leśna River in the former Brest-Litovsk voivodeship. The Nemtsevichs' residence was affected by successive historical upheavals, particularly those of 1794, 1914 and 1939. Today, the renovated palace in Skoki, on the outskirts of Brest in Belarus, is a museum site.

Skoki Palace - architecture

The two-storey palace in Baroque style, rectangular in plan, with a high gable roof and a small portico, was built in the 1770s by the writer's father, Marceli Niemcewicz (d. before 1802), an aristocrat of Mielnica and a member of the electoral assembly in 1764. Many years later, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz wrote in his Memoirs of My Times in Paris, a detailed description of the house and its surroundings: "[my father] erected this palace for three families together, which gave it the true shape of a monastery; downstairs one along, the other across a corridor, with small rooms, or cells, on the sides.... Upstairs were two spacious flats and a dancing hall with a porch for music; in the two towers the treasury and other hiding places. All the walls were at least two cubits thick. On the sides my father erected outbuildings and brick stables'.

The seat of the Niemcewicz family until 1939.

In 1794, the palace was completely looted by the Russian army suppressing the Kościuszko Uprising. In his adult life, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz never settled permanently in Skoki, visiting it only several times. In 1781, when he received news from home that his mother was "dangerously ill", and in 1802-1804 in order to settle estate matters after his deceased father.

The state of the palace and its appearance in the second half of the 19th century is known thanks to a drawing by Napoleon Orda (1807-1883). During the First World War, the Niemcewicz family residence was almost completely devastated. Until 1914, among the family heirlooms, it housed documents related to Julian Niemcewicz's activities, including a letter from the 'father of the American nation' George Washington, portraits of the writer and his parents, and many personal items such as watches, orders and a rich collection of snuff boxes donated by the greats of the time, Tsar Paul I and Emperor Napoleon. All these archives and works of art were looted or destroyed during the war effort.

Until 1939, Skoki was owned by successive descendants of the writer's brother, Jan Ursyn Niemcewicz, marshal of the gentry of the Brest district, among whom were Jan Tytus (1828-1900), marshal of the gentry of the Grodno governorate, and Jan (1869-1933), president of the Brest Agricultural Society and, already in the independent Republic, the first mayor of the city of Brest.

Jumping after the Second World War

After the Second World War, the palace housed a school until 1986, which was moved in the mid-1990s to a new building erected next door. On the façade of the abandoned, deteriorating palace, two information boards were placed dedicated to the monument and its famous owner. One in Russian which reads: "Mansion monument / of 18th century architecture / Here on February 16, 1758 / the Polish writer / JULIAN NIEMCEWICZ / was born / monument under state protection" and the second, more recent one in Belarusian: "Ministry of Culture / of the Republic of Belarus / Monument of History and Culture / Nemtsevich Manor / (2nd half of the 18th century) / under state protection".

For years, the palace was in a very bad condition, it was a pity to see the windows boarded up, the roof leaking and the plaster flaking off the façade. The idea to renovate the building and create a museum or cultural centre there remained in the realm of plans for a long time. Finally, renovation work began in 2006. After seven years, the State Cultural Institution "Historic-Memorial Museum "Dwor Niemcewiczów"" was officially opened on 14 December 2013. In the following years, more rooms were opened to visitors, and by 2024 there were ten rooms. The exhibition presents on the ground floor: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's study, an agricultural room, a large dining room, on the first floor: a ballroom, a music room, a library, a collection of weapons, a room of nobleman's clothing and a bedroom.

Park and manor buildings in Skoki

Adjacent to the Niemcewicz residence at the back was a large (over 6 hectares), regular park with three parallel avenues, of which the central, widest one, planted with hornbeams, ran along the axis of the palace and descended towards the river Leśna in the northern direction. The old stand of trees and traces of the former layout of the alleys have partially survived to this day. Due to its neglected state, it gives the impression of a landscape park. In Soviet times, a memorial to the Red Army was erected in the remains of the manor park.

The outbuildings and stables with carriage house, which originally stood on either side of the palace, have not been preserved. The same is true of the church built by Marceli Niemcewicz opposite the entrance gate, in whose vaults he and several of his descendants were buried. In September 1939, after the Soviet aggression, the place was profaned - coffins were taken out of the crypt and robbed.

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's family home

But it was not in this brick palace that the writer was born, but probably in a 17th-century typical old Polish larch manor house with a porch. Niemcewicz held it in great affection to the end of his life. It was: "a small, wooden house in which I saw the light, and which today is already demolished. It pleases me in my old age to recall all the details of the places of my birth. This house, according to old Polish custom, had a porch; from this you entered a hallway; all around its walls hung wreaths of hard-working harvesters, interspersed with colas and cornflowers. From this vestibule one entered a room with dark upholstery on the left hand side. Two paintings, pastel-painted copies by Carlo Dolce of Jesus and the Virgin Mary behind glass, stools and a walnut table adorned this room; from this one entered my parents' sleeping room, from which one door led into the children's room, the other into the large room [...]". The childhood years were associated with memories of family and historical events: the cowpox he suffered, the death of his grandfather, the ravages of the Russian army in the area, the Bar Confederation. This not at all carefree time came to an end when his father decided in 1770 to send Julian to study at the Warsaw Knights' School.

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841) devotedly served Poland both with his pen and in public life. The author of Powrót posła [The Return of the Messenger] and Śpiewy historyczne [Historical Songs], he was engaged in literary work for almost seventy years. An alumnus of the Knights' School, he was an MP during the Great Sejm and co-founder of the 3rd of May Constitution. At Tadeusz Kościuszko's side, as his aide-de-camp and personal secretary, he took part in the 1794 uprising. He was imprisoned in the Petropavlovsk fortress in St Petersburg under special surveillance. Later he took an active part in public life as a member of the Society of Friends of Science, of which he became president in 1827. In the Duchy of Warsaw, he was Secretary of the Council of State and Senate and President of the Government Directorate of the National Theatre, and in the Congress Kingdom - Secretary of the Council of State and Senate. After the outbreak of the November Uprising, he became a member of the Administrative Council and the Government. About himself he wrote: "As long as I lived, I loved my Homeland, I die in exile". He died in Paris, aged 83. He was spiritually shaped by the atmosphere of his family home in Skoki near Brest.