Palaces

Oleśnica Mała Palace

The baroque palace in Oleśnica Mała, a short drive east of Oława in Lower Silesia, stands on ground where Silesian history interweaves threefold: the Templars, the Hospitallers and a Prussian field marshal's family. Duke Bolesław I the Tall built a hunting castle here in 1189, and between 1220 and 1227 the estate passed to the Knights Templar, who established the order's first commandery in Silesia. After the order was dissolved in 1312 the Hospitallers took over; the castle they raised in 1377 was the only one of its kind in the region and served them for nearly five centuries.

From a commandery castle to the Yorck residence

The palace owes its present shape to a rebuild after the fire of 1706: between 1706 and 1711 commander von Dittrichstein raised the baroque residence that stands today. After the order was secularised in 1810, King Frederick William III granted the estate in 1814 to Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg as a reward for his service in the war against Napoleon. The family extended the palace in 1815–1820, and in 1904–1905 Count Heinrich added Sophia Tower and an orangery. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, the last owner and a member of the anti-Nazi resistance, was executed in Berlin on 8 August 1944; a plaque on the palace wall commemorates him.

What to see

The complex includes the Church of St Lawrence on the St James pilgrimage route, a park and the 1828 Yorck mausoleum, today the chapel of St Maximilian Kolbe. Family coats of arms survive above the portals, among them the Yorck cross of St Andrew. The palace itself houses a plant-breeding research station and is best viewed from the outside; the nearby A4 motorway exit makes it easy to combine with a visit to Brzeg and its ducal castle.