Bishops' Palace in Ciążeń

The late Baroque palace of the Bishops of Poznań in Ciążeń on the Warta is one of the largest and most interesting Rococo ensembles in Greater Poland. The three-storey building with a mansard roof, a gallery and an annexe stands in a park that descends in three terraces towards the river. Since 1969 it has belonged to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and serves as its Creative Work House – not a museum with a ticket desk, but a place where you can stay the night and stroll through the historic park.

History: a residence of bishops and landowners

There was already an episcopal residence in Ciążeń in the Middle Ages – the chronicler Janko of Czarnków wrote about the beautiful gardens surrounding it, and the first records of Ciążeń date from the second half of the 13th century. The present palace was built for Bishop Teodor Czartoryski. Sources differ on the dates: according to some it was built in 1758–1768 by the architect Józef Sacco; according to the building's operator the start date is unknown, and in the year of the founder's death (1788) the palace stood but was unfinished. What is certain is that Bishop Ignacy Raczyński completed it and surrounded it with a park; the Rococo finish dates from around 1810. The plan was to link the palace with its annexes by galleries on both sides, but because the founder died only the eastern gallery was built.

Tsar Alexander I stayed here in the early 19th century. In 1818 the episcopal estates were confiscated, and the first private owner was Wacław Gutakowski, an aide-de-camp to the tsar. His family kept the estate until 1860; later it belonged to families including the Golcz, Dąbski, Zakrzewski and Gerlicz, who bought it at auction in 1935. After the war, from 1946 to 1964, it housed a primary school. The palace and park were entered on the heritage register in 1949.

What to see

• The palace façade – a ground floor set off by a strong cornice, shallow projections with giant-order pilasters and Rococo stucco on the capitals.
• Stucco in two first-floor salons – ceiling decoration designed by François de Cuvilliés, with architectural and Chinese motifs and pastoral scenes (the interiors are not open as in a museum).
• The park – sources give its area as either 9.7 ha or 12 ha. The southern part descends in three levels to the Warta; on the middle terrace there are two ponds and a viewing mound overlooking the valley in the Warta Landscape Park.
• A natural monument – a small-leaved lime with a trunk girth of 520 cm and a height of 29 m, plus the lime avenue closing the park to the east.
• New plantings – since the 1980s species such as ginkgo, dawn redwood and swamp cypress have been added.

Did you know?

For decades the palace was associated above all with Freemasonry. It housed a branch of the University Library with about 80,000 volumes of Masonic publications – from 17th-century Rosicrucian prints to works from the 1930s – regarded as one of the largest such collections in Europe. In 2017 the collection was moved to the Collegium Martineum in Poznań, so you will no longer find it in Ciążeń.

Tripto tips

The university's Creative Work House is at ul. Wolności 33 in Ciążeń (Lądek municipality, Słupca County) and offers accommodation, conference rooms and meals – staying overnight is the easiest way to see the palace and park at leisure. If you want to visit the grounds or interiors as a tourist, ask the administration in advance about current rules (tel. +48 63 276 41 24, ciazen@amu.edu.pl). A walk around the park including the mound takes about an hour.