Potocki Palace in Krystynopol (now Czerwonogród), designed by Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille, 1756-1762, photo Tomasz Leśniowski, 2010
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ID: POL-001418-P/135247

Potocki Palace in Krystynopol (now Czerwonogród)

ID: POL-001418-P/135247

Potocki Palace in Krystynopol (now Czerwonogród)

Variants of the name:

Pałac Potockich w Czerwonogrodzie

Situated on a mountainous promontory, the town of Chervonogrod lies in the middle of a basin whose slopes dominate the castle. It is situated on the Sołokija River, which cuts through the basin, surrounding the hill and flowing into the Dniester. The city lies in the Lviv region, 15 km east of the Polish border, and is the capital of the Redgorod region.

The city has passed through various hands - , belonging to Ruthenian and Lithuanian princes or the Moldavian hospodar. It was conquered by Casimir the Great and became the property of King Władysław Jagiełło, who granted it to Spytek of Melsztyn. It later passed into the hands of the Grand Dukes Świdrygiełło and Witold. In 1434, with the incorporation of Podolia into the Crown, Czerwonogród was granted the status of a royal town and became the seat of a non-city starosty. The first to hold this office was the castellan of Kamenets - Teodoryk Jazłowiecki-Buczacki (d. 1456). The castle was built from the local red sandstone, hence the name of the town. The exact date of construction and the appearance of the oldest castle are not known. However, 17th-century sources indicate that the walled castle of that time was quadrilateral in shape with four round towers at the corners, surrounded by an outer line of walls.

As Krystynopol, a town founded at the confluence of two rivers, the Sołoki and the Bug, by the voivode of Krakow and field hetman of the Crown - Szczęsny Kazimierz Potocki, it has existed since 1692. It was named after his wife, Krystyna née Lubomirska, whom he married in 1661. In 1695, he founded a Bernardine monastery and the Church of the Holy Spirit in the town, where he was laid to rest after his death in 1702. The voivode of Kiev and Volhynia, Franciszek Salezy Potocki, the hetman's great-grandson, chose Krystynopol as his residence and erected a splendid new residence in the place of the former palace, built in 1756-1762 according to a design by the famous architect Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille (1725-1772). It was closely linked to the town, as one entered the first courtyard directly from the market square, passing an orangery with a flower garden on the left. This is how Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski described it in Starościna Bełska :

"Opposite the large and extensive palace, with two large courtyards with outbuildings, a number of minor buildings and a magnificent entrance gate in the midst of a vast and shady park, there was a hauptwach [guardroom - ABR note] occupied by a dragoon leibgarde, which beat drums every time the governor entered or left, stood and gave him military honours. A citizen or voivodship official, despite the title of lord brother given to them on the envelope, did not dare to drive in front of the palace in Krystynopol. Out of respect, they would get out of their carriages and coaches at the gate and walk to the palace door. The soldiers keeping guard at the gate would not let the carriage go; only some ladies were allowed to drive in front of the palace, but the carriage immediately went out of the gate."

Deep behind the gate building was a second courtyard with single-storey narrow wings connecting the ends of the gate building with the palace into an enclosed space. In the central part of the body was a risalit with rounded corners. The residence was magnificent, the interiors extremely rich, and on the south side there was an extensive park in the shape of a regular rectangle in the Italian-French style, on the axis of which there were three quadrilateral flowerbeds with two fountains in one row. Arbours were placed between them and a network of ponds and canals was laid out further into the park. It was a worthy residence for Franciszek Sales Potocki, known as the 'little king in Russia' - one of the most powerful and undisputedly the wealthiest magnate of the Republic. Under his rule, the court was in no way inferior to the royal courts, even the etiquette was modelled on the royal court. As we read in the memoirs of Potocki's official, Antoni Chrząszczewski:

"The front servants of Saleze Potocki, in addition to valets from the underclass, cloakroom attendants, hunters, chambermaids, horsemen, etc., consisted of 30 courtiers [...]. The court militia was formed by infantry, dragoons, uhlans and Cossacks. Officers of the regular army were patented from the King and wore the folders of the national army".

Etiquette was extremely strictly guarded by the provincial governor Anna Elisabeth Potocka, who on one occasion "slapped the cheek" of a new courtier for supporting her under the arm when boarding a carriage, instead of merely giving her an elbow for support, in accordance with etiquette.

When the Potockis were giving away their daughter, Maria Klementyna, to Aloysius Frederick, son of Count Henrik Brühl, a powerful minister to King August III, the wedding in the Krystynopol palace took place with truly royal pomp. It was described by Kraszewski in Starościna Bełska :

"The wedding, which also took place in the governors' residence, was no less sumptuous and magnificent; all the foreign court deputies, ministers, many bishops, voivodes and princes friendly to the House of Brühl and the Potockis were invited. [From the palace to the church of the Bernardine Fathers, the entire street was lined with red cloth, through which the newlyweds and distinguished guests walked to their wedding. The splendour and magnificence were so great that the wedding costs were estimated at 253,000 zlotys. For one firework, which was to be burnt on that day in honour of the bride and groom, P.C.G. Deybel de Hameran, lieutenant and adjutant of the Crown artillery, the most skilful pyrotechnician of the time, was deliberately brought from Warsaw. He was arranging a great fire drama, the details of which have been left to us in a plan drawn up by his own hand. Its prologue consisted of the firing of twelve cannons; the praeludium of trumpets and thundering kettledrums. In the first act, on the left wing, the figure M. P. (Marya Potocka) appeared, crowned in white fire; on the right wing, F. B. (Friedrich Brühl), equally shining and crowned. Between the figures, twelve fountains threw up sparkling drops, and above, Providence in a symbolic triangle kept watch. Acts II and III, in fact, differed little from the first; an unheard-of number of flares à la ferte , shmermels, bouquet à la garandola , cascades, etc. were burned. In the last, a huge blaze: Vivant! amidst the blue fires, again Providence above, and all around, cascades, bouquets, fountains, garandolas, fireworks à la ronde .
A lot of money was thrown out with fire at this wedding, a lot of gunpowder was burnt, a lot of wine was drunk; but the voivode performed in a princely, royal manner, as they said; the whole of Poland was talking about it and newspapers were flying around the country."

The palace declined after the hetman's death in 1772, when his son Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, a bargainer, moved to Tulczyn. Perhaps the abandonment of the family home was influenced by the tragedy he experienced in his youth. For one of the saddest love stories and, at the same time, one of the most shocking moral scandals in 18th-century Poland is connected with the Potocki palace in Krystynopol. Antoni Malczewski wrote the famous poem Maria , based on this story, in 1824. Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, then 18 years old, fell in love with Gertruda Komorowska, who came from an old noble family, unfortunately not very wealthy. The young couple were married in the Greek Catholic rite on 16 December 1770, admittedly with the blessing of the maiden's parents, but without the knowledge of the Potockis, who were decidedly uncomfortable with such a daughter-in-law. On the orders of Franciszek Saleze Potocki, Gertruda, who was already pregnant at the time, was kidnapped with the intention of imprisoning her in a monastery, and since she died on the way as a result of an accident, negligence or perhaps intentional action - her body was hidden to cover up the crime. In July 1905, Józef Białynia-Hołodecki, together with Aleksander Czołowski, discovered the tomb of Gertruda Potocka in the basement of the church in Witków, and a year later published a publication devoted to it. This is what he wrote about the tragic fate of the Potocki family's unworthy daughter-in-law:

"Kidnapped, dragged, abused, strangled, Gertruda miscarried and died in the hands of her tormentors. [...] The leaders of the expedition knew well what they were to do with the living Szczęsnowa Potocka, but they lost their heads at the sight of the dead body. Horrified by the crime, they did not know what to do with the corpse, with this lifeless and yet so vivid testimony of a fulfilled crime [...]. After deliberation, they decided to drown the body in the nearest water and cover the traces of the crime."

The body was found in the spring, when the ice broke and the crime came to light. The Potockis then used their fortune to keep the scandal quiet: "The Komorowskis, having lost their daughter, grieved, went to Lvov and started a trial, but they lacked evidence to blame the Potockis. Count Komorowski [...] could not expect to win, because he had no certain evidence; and the voivode [i.e. Potocki - note ABR] was pouring money into his acquittal." Meanwhile, the despairing Szczęsny first attempted suicide and then left for abroad, from where he only returned after his father's death. At that time, he surrendered the indebted Krystynopol, located within the Austrian partition, and the surrounding domains to Prince Adam Poniński only on condition that he repaid the debts owed to him, and moved himself to Tulczyn. The castle walls were in ruins at the time, so when Adam's son, Karol Poniński, became the owner of the town, around 1820 he demolished two towers and three sides of the castle grounds. The remaining two towers and their associated walls were incorporated into the new classicist palace. Charles's son, Kalikst, continued the renovation of the palace, and the reconstruction in neo-Gothic style was led by Friedrich Baum. The old towers were demolished to their foundations and new ones were built in their place, with windows in the neo-Gothic style and attics on top. These towers accentuated the eastern façade of the two-bay palace body with a columned portico and terrace probably built on the site of the old castle. The use of the old castle walls can be evidenced by both the irregularity of the plan and the varying thickness of the palace walls. The western front elevation was decorated with a triaxial pseudo-horizalite with a triangular abutment and a column-supported balcony over the main entrance. The palace was surrounded by a park with a fountain and a gazebo.

After the death of Kalikst Poniński, the palace passed into the hands of the Lubomirski family. The last owner was Maria Eleonora née Zamojska Lubomirska (1862-1945). At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, construction work was carried out by Kazimierz Mokłowski. The palace, carefully maintained until World War I, devastated by army marches in 1914-1920, was renovated in the inter-war period, but the renovation was not completed before the outbreak of World War II. The last owner before the war was Colonel Zygmunt Lipiński, who handed over the estate to the district authorities. The palace was partially renovated and now houses a branch of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion. Unfortunately, the palace park has not been preserved - the grounds now house, among other things, a football stadium.

Time of origin:

1756-1762

Creator:

Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille (architekt; Francja, Polska)

Publikacja:

10.11.2024

Ostatnia aktualizacja:

10.11.2024

Author:

Agnieszka Bukowczan-Rzeszut
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Potocki Palace in Krystynopol (now Czerwonogród), designed by Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille, 1756-1762
Potocki Palace in Krystynopol (now Czerwonogród), designed by Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille, 1756-1762, photo Tomasz Leśniowski, 2010

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