Palaces

Palace in Milicz

A classicist palace by the Barycz river, built in 1797–1798 to a design by Karl Geissler for Joachim Karl von Maltzan, served the Maltzan family until the end of the Second World War. Today it houses a forestry secondary school, yet the courtyard and park remain open to visitors.

A residence in the Potsdam style

The building recalls the Potsdam residences of Sanssouci and the New Palace. Inside, an oval ballroom with wooden Ionic columns and the fittings of neighbouring rooms have survived. The heraldic courtyard contains stone coats of arms — among others of the von Kurzbach and Maltzan families — moved from the older castle, while the gate of 1844 is decorated with figures of bathing nymphs, Daphne and Leda with a swan. The fountain with reliefs follows a 1929 design by Cornelia Paczka-Wagner.

Maria von Maltzan

In 1909 Maria von Maltzan was born in the palace — a veterinarian and writer who from 1933 worked in the anti-Nazi opposition: she hid persecuted Jews in Berlin and organised false documents for them. For this she received the Righteous Among the Nations medal; her story is told in the film „Hidden”.

From army command to forestry school

After 1945 the palace hosted a command post of the Soviet army, and later the forestry school moved in. Around it stretches an English park with the ruins of the medieval castle, and by the entrance stands a colourful figure of a carp — a stop on the Colourful Carp Trail in the Barycz Valley.