The seat of Košice has, over the last hundred years, lost its character of a palace situated by the city walls. Nevertheless, it is still an interesting example of Vilnius palaces.

The Košice Palace was located in the south-western part of old Vilnius, near Rudnicka Gate, at the back of the All Saints' Carmelite Church and the Holy Trinity Basilian Orthodox Church. On the northern side of the Košice palace, the residence of the Przezdzieckis was adjacent. Both buildings were situated in front of a rectangular square at the corner of Końska and Wszystkich Świętych Streets, the shorter side of which was occupied by the Carmelite Church of St Joseph (no longer extant). Originally, there was no passage from the square.

In 1690, the brick building on Końskie Square - the beginning of the palace - belonged to Michal Košice (d. 1709), the land writer of Vilnius. Already at that time, the building was equipped with a water supply system and the magistrate charged a fee for providing water. By 1702. Košice, benefactor of the Jesuit colleges and founder of the order's church in Snipiškės in 1688, purchased the neighbouring plots of land with the houses of the tailor Adam, the widow Stefanovičová and the Lomiškis.

His nephew Stanislav, starosta of Zarzyce and treasurer of the Vitebsk voivodeship, inherited from Kosice, who died childless. He undertook the reconstruction of the edifices and merged them into one representative organism, enlarged in 1741 by Koszyce's wife, Zofia of Skrzynna Dunin (d. 1742). In 1775 the palace was owned by the sons of Stanisław and Zofia Koszycek - Mikołaj and Antoni. In 1790 the estate belonged to the younger of the two - Antoni (b. 1720). At that time, the courtyard of the residence was enclosed by an outbuilding, adjacent to the city walls. The north wing may also have been extended at this time.

After the death of Antoni and his wife Barbara (née Woyn), their daughters became the owners of the estate, and on 5 December 1802 they divided it up. The realty fell to Aniela (1776-1829), married to Tadeusz Szemiot (1774-1835), who on 17 April 1805 sold the palace to Jan Nikodem Łopaciński (1747-1810), the starost of Mstislavl. At that time, the spatial arrangement in front of the residence was changed, as when the city walls were dismantled, the square was connected with Basilianska Street.

The next owner of the palace was Maurycy Buczynski, married to Matilda Günther von Hildesheim (1811-1867). The palace was substantially rebuilt before 1834. The façade was dominated by an Ionic portico with a garland frieze and a tympanum, where the Strzemię coat of arms (not preserved) was placed among stucco stylised floral motifs.


After Buczyńska's death, the palace was inherited by her sisters Idalia (1813-1888) and Gabriela (1815-1869), who put the abandoned and ruined edifice up for auction in 1870. A major extension of the chateau was carried out by the new owner Robert Barkenberg (d. 1882). Aiming to keep the plot tightly built up, he erected a two-storey building on the side of Zawalna Street (no longer extant, there is a building on it today with the address Pylimo g. 56), the irregular shape of which overlooked All Saints' Street. This investment was undertaken in the face of the transformation of Końskie Square that had been underway since 1867, when the church and the convent of the Discalced Carmelites were demolished, which permanently changed the landscape of this part of Vilnius. At the same time, the character of Zawalna Street was being transformed. The building erected by Barkenberg (until 1865) faced the street, which led to the railway station (1862).

In 1884, the palace's possessor became the widely disliked administrator by the Russian government of the Vilnius diocese in 1863-1883, Father Piotr Żyliński (1816-1887), whose sister Teresa (d. 1882) was married to the aforementioned Bakenberg. A year later the seat was already in the hands of the military engineer A. Ostrowski, and in 1888 the Oskierk family became its owners. In 1895, the palace was slightly reconstructed according to a design by Konstantin Koroyedov (1862- after 1912), when porte-fenêtre windows were introduced in the second storey and a cast-iron balcony was installed.