Palaces

Brynek Palace

From the main road of Brynek, a village near Tarnowskie Góry, the domes of an eclectic palace with two towers topped by onion helmets peer through the trees. The residence, today home to the Forest and Ecological Schools Complex, travelled from the building of 1829 to a magnate seat of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family.

Rosenthal, Hohenlohe, Donnersmarck

The palace was built in 1829 on the initiative of Bernard von Rosenthal of Wrocław for Prince Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen. In 1872 wings were added, and in 1904 the estate was bought by Count Hugo II Henckel von Donnersmarck of Siemianowice, who wanted to make Brynek the main seat of his line. A year later the last great rebuild began, to a design by the Wrocław architect Karl Grosser — it cost more than 3 million marks of the time and was widely reported in the Silesian press. The palace then gained its eclectic style, mansard roof and characteristic turrets.

Details to look for

Above the portico stand two Ionic columns, above the first-floor window you can see the cartouche with Hugo II's coat of arms, and higher up the attic features figures of a hunter, a worker, a farmer and a fisherman. In the western wing waits a chapel with an onion helmet and a lantern, linked to the palace by a gallery — returned to the Church in 1991 after years of secular use.

Botanical garden and forest school

Since the end of the war the palace has housed a forestry school with a boarding house. The complex includes a park with a botanical garden, a water tower with a clock from 1906, an orangery and a greenhouse. Inside, the grand staircase, the fireplaces and the palace chapel recall the former splendour.

In practice

The palace operates as a school, so it is visited from the outside; it presents itself most impressively from the park side. The drive from Tarnowskie Góry takes a dozen or so minutes, and nearby you will also find the castle in Tworóg and the castle ruins in Świerklaniec.