Krowiarki Palace

Krowiarki Palace in the Pietrowice Wielkie district, north-west of Racibórz, is one of the largest residences in Upper Silesia: about 6,500 m² of floor space, 115 rooms and 30 cellars forming an underground labyrinth. The National Heritage Board describes its façade, with towers, mansard roofs and an Art Nouveau brick wing, as a conglomerate of styles from Mannerism to Art Nouveau. The former seat of the Strachwitz, Gaschin and Henckel von Donnersmarck families is privately owned and being gradually restored; from outside it impresses with its scale and its 17.5-hectare park.

History

A wooden castle at Krowiarki was recorded in 1678, when the village belonged to the von Beess family (from 1564). The estate later passed to Leopold Paczyński and in 1798 to Karl Strachwitz. In 1826 his heir Johann M. Strachwitz, bound by the will, began building a brick palace, continued from 1840 by Ernst Joachim Strachwitz. In 1843 Amand Leopold von Gaschin bought the village, and in 1852–1877 the palace was remodelled and a new park laid out.

In 1877 Fanny von Gaschin handed the estate to her daughter Wanda, wife of Hugo II Henckel von Donnersmarck, and from then on it belonged to that family. After a fire destroyed the wooden northern part in 1892, a new Art Nouveau wing was built in 1898. Hugo and Wanda lived here until 1905–1906 before moving to Brynek; the last owner from the family, in 1939–1945, was Hans II Henckel-Gaschin. The palace survived the war intact and later housed a children's home and a nursery, and in 1963–1970 a rehabilitation and orthopaedic hospital. From 1970 it fell into decay. In 2007 it changed hands and gradual restoration began: new ceilings, beams and roofing, conservation of cornices and rosettes, while the towers that threatened the building were recorded and dismantled.

What to see

• The palace block with a three-bay central projection, square corner towers and cylindrical turrets with spires.
• The Art Nouveau north wing in brick, contrasting with the older part rendered in red.
• The landscape park with a vista and clearings; trees include copper beech, red oak and three species of pine. An ecological educational trail runs through it.
• The Neoclassical mausoleum of about 1870, cruciform with a copper-clad dome, in the south-eastern corner of the park – the resting place of Hugo II and Wanda, among others.
• The L-shaped stables and coach house with arcades, and the ruins of the riding hall.

Did you know?

The ballroom, known as the blue salon, once displayed portraits of the imperial Habsburg family painted by Christian Philipp van Bentum in 1735. In the dining room the oak panelling bears coats of arms of families including the Lichnowskys, Radziwiłłs and Lobkowiczs, and the palace also retains a Moorish room with horseshoe arches. By the site of a former wooden church in the park stands an 18th-century Baroque statue of St John of Nepomuk by Johannes Nitsche of Opava.

Tripto tips

According to the National Heritage Board, the site can be viewed from outside, and the interiors can be seen by arrangement with the owner. The former entrance with its gatehouse lies at the foot of the escarpment, outside the palace grounds; today access is from the farm side, to the north. Allow about an hour for a walk through the park and around the palace. The visit combines easily with nearby Racibórz; park so as not to block access to the farm.