The baroque architecture “corps de logis” (main building) of Wilanow Palace harks back to ancient times with its elegant corinthian columns, classical sculptures, and bas-reliefs glorifying the king’s reign. (Scotch Mist/CC BY-SA 3.0)
WARSAW, Poland—Wilanow Palace, on the outskirts of Warsaw, stands as testimony to Polish patriotism and the country’s hard-won battles for independence.
In 1677, King Jan III Sobieski, monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, made his private home at Wilanow and kept his official residence in the heart of Warsaw at the Royal Palace.
The king commissioned architect Agostino Vincenzo Locci to first build him a manor house that, over a period of nearly 20 years, he expanded into a palace. The main palace expansion happened in 1683, after the king’s victory in the Battle of Vienna against the Ottomans.
Architects and artists combined Baroque and ancient styles throughout the royal estate, creating what many see as Poland’s Versailles. In Wilanow, we can see elements of the Polish manor house, the Italian villa, and the French palace.
An aerial view of Warsaw’s Baroque Wilanow Palace, where Polish royals once lived. Visitors to the Baroque palace can enjoy a stroll through the vast grounds and myriad garden styles, including Italian, English, and Chinese. (Stock video production/Shutterstock)
Having traveled across Europe, the king was well-versed in war, politics, and foreign diplomacy. His penchant for the arts and science and his successful military leadership can be seen throughout the Baroque palace architecture and decorative themes.
Architects divided the palace into King Jan III’s apartments and Queen Marie Casimire’s apartments, with each of the building’s facades and interiors reflecting masculine and feminine virtues, respectively. For instance, artists created ancient mythological scenes that exemplified the queen’s beauty, such as the Horae (Greek goddesses representing the four seasons) in a meadow. And motifs across the palace facades charted the king’s triumphs and foretold of the fortunes that his reign hoped to bring to the commonwealth.
In 1720, aristocrat Elzbieta Sieniawska purchased the palace and built an orangery and two neoclassical-style side wings, creating the courtyard that we can see today.
Between 1730 and 1733, the king of Poland, Augustus II the Strong, lived at the palace. After he died, Sieniawska’s daughter Maria Zofia Czartoryska inherited the palace, later passing it on to her daughter Izabela Lubomirska. Lubomirska’s daughter Aleksandra and son-in-law Stanislaw Kostka Potocki founded one of Poland’s first public museums at the palace, for everyone to enjoy for free, a tradition that continues every Thursday.
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The Baroque architecture “corps de logis” (main building) of Wilanow Palace harks back to ancient times with its elegant Corinthian columns, classical sculptures, and bas-reliefs glorifying the king’s reign. (Scotch Mist/CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Wilanow Palace artists created decorative themes that honored ancient Roman tradition and glorified the king’s reign. A triumphal arch incorporated into a façade of the king’s apartments announces his heroic deeds, as he drives a Roman chariot followed by a cavalcade of prisoners of war (seen in an adjacent bas relief). (LEE SNIDER PHOTO IMAGES/Shutterstock)
On the facade of Wilanow Palace, two ancient Greek oracles known as sibyls flank Saturn holding a sundial adorned with astrological motifs. According to the Wilanow Palace website, these sibyls likely foretell the good fortune that King Jan III’s son would bring during his reign, although his son never became king. (Piotr Kloska/Shutterstock)
Statutes personifying the different lands across the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth stand in niches throughout the palace facades. In one niche, a statue of the Roman goddess Abundantia holding a cornucopia (horn of plenty) and sheaths of wheat symbolizes abundance, nourishment, and a good harvest. (Tupungato/Shutterstock)
Genoa-style velvet wallpaper hangs in the king’s bedroom. The art and decorative work throughout the room reflect allegories of summer, such as the painting above the door frame (and the queen’s bedroom reflects springtime scenes). Eighteenth-century French furniture fills the room, including Louis XIV stools and a copy of a chest of drawers made in the workshop of preeminent French cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle for Louis XIV’s chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin. (Diego Grandi/Shutterstock)
In the king’s bedroom, four frieze frescoes by Polish painter Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter illustrate Virgil’s “Georgics.” “Tum uariae uenere artes. labor omnia uicit improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas” (Then came the various skills. Persevering labor overcomes all difficulties, and want that urges us on in the pressure of things) reads a quote on one painting of hardworking peasants. (Public Domain)
Genoa-style velvet patterned wallpaper lines the walls of the queen’s bedroom. A reconstructed bed, based on a design by Daniel Marot (a draftsman who served King Louis XIV), features a red and gold canopy topped with two feather plumes. Putti and sphinxes feature throughout the ceiling stucco work, along with springtime frescoes quoting and illustrating Virgil’s “Georgics.” Spring motifs also run around the large Regency mirror frames, reflecting the opulent room. (trabantos/Shutterstock)
A detail of the Genoa-style velvet wallpaper with silk and silver thread in the queen’s bedroom. (Public Domain)
In 1805, one of Poland’s first public museums opened at the palace. Three rooms were merged to create a gallery with Pompeii pink walls and a classical decorative theme. Great Renaissance painters, sculptors, and architects peer out from their ceiling portrait medallions while some of their great works can be seen on display. (Kgbo/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Lorraine Ferrier writes about fine arts and craftsmanship for The Epoch Times. She focuses on artists and artisans, primarily in North America and Europe, who imbue their works with beauty and traditional values. She's especially interested in giving a voice to the rare and lesser-known arts and crafts, in the hope that we can preserve our traditional art heritage. She lives and writes in a London suburb, in England.
