Rajcza Palace

Prince Władysław Lubomirski's guests at Rajcza Palace included the composers Karol Szymanowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg and Ludomir Różycki. The neo-Renaissance residence on the Soła river in the Żywiec Beskids was remodelled for the prince in 1895–1896, and in 1914 it was bought by the Żywiec branch of the Habsburgs. For more than a century it has cared for the sick – today it houses a long-term care facility, set in a park with six natural monuments.

History: from the Siemoński manor to the Habsburgs

The first residence was built around 1809 by Agnieszka Siemońska, née Jordan, and Anastazy Siemoński turned it into a manor house; he also opened an ironworks in Rajcza. In 1854 the estate was bought by Teodor Primavesi, of a family well connected at the Viennese court, who added neo-Gothic touches. In 1894 Prince Eugeniusz Lubomirski bought Rajcza for his son Władysław, who in 1895–1896 gave the palace its present look: he added a second storey and topped the projections by the entrance with Northern Renaissance-style gables. In its heyday the palace had 26 rooms with stucco decoration.

On 4 May 1914 the palace was bought by Archduke Karl Stephan of Habsburg, owner of the Żywiec estates. In 1916 he turned it into a hospital and sanatorium for soldiers, and in 1917 he donated it to the Polish Red Cross as a hospital for lung diseases.

War and the 20th century

During the German occupation a forced-labour camp for local Jews was set up on the palace grounds, and in 1940 an assembly point for residents expelled in the Saybusch Action, the Nazi deportation of Poles from the Żywiec area. In 1945 Soviet soldiers wrecked the interiors. In 1954 a state tuberculosis sanatorium opened here, a wing with a chapel was added in 1966–1967, and after a major renovation in 1999 the palace became the seat of a public long-term care facility.

The park on Cząpel hill

The landscape park, laid out in the first half of the 19th century, lies at the foot and on the slope of Cząpel hill. Among the spruces, beeches, ashes and maples are 6 natural monuments: two Weymouth pines with a girth of 310 cm, a small-leaved lime of 470 cm, a sycamore maple (340 cm), a wych elm (320 cm) and a pedunculate oak (310 cm). The complex, with its outbuildings, has been on the heritage register since 1988.

Tripto tip

The palace at ul. Ujsolska 35 is a working medical facility, so view it from outside and keep noise down out of respect for the patients. The best view of the south front is from the park. Rajcza is on the Żywiec–Zwardoń railway line, so it is an easy stop on the way to the higher Żywiec Beskids. A walk takes about 30 minutes.