A SIERADZ 'PALACE DECADE'? KACPER DENHOFF'S FOUNDATIONS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 17th CENTURY

• Authors: Kajzer L.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

In the title the author alludes to the term 'Warsaw palace decade', used by Professor Adam Milobedzki to refer to the rapid development of the Polish capital in the first half of the 17th c., especially to the erection of numerous early-baroque palace complexes. The present text is devoted to the foundations of Kacper Denhoff (d. 1645), a favourite of King Sigismund III Vasa and one of the most prominent members of the so-called 'court faction' in the Polish politics of the time. It has been inspired by the results of excavations in the Ostrowski family palace in Ujazd near Tomaszów Mazowiecki, which have brought new data on the earlier phases in the history of this edifice: the fifteenth-century castle built by Piotr Strykowski and the early-baroque residence of Kacper Denhoff. Kacper Denhoff was a newcomer in the ruling elite but he laid the foundations of his family's magnate fortune. Although he supported the King, he did not assume the highest offices and ended his career as the governor of the Sieradz province, but he was influential and propertied. The latter fact enabled him to found several interesting object, mostly in the Sieradz province. His first undertaking of that sort was the transformation of a mediaeval castle in Boleslawiec on the Prosna River into a comfortable residence surrounded with an 'Italian garden'. Later, around 1630, he built an early-baroque palace in Kruszyna. It was the last residential complex erected in Poland that had been planned around an internal yard, but its grand front-yard and garden marked a fully modern layout. Kruszyna became Denhoff's main residence; unfortunately it was located rather far from Warsaw, so in 1636 he bought an estate much closer to the capital, in Ujazd, where he pulled down an old castle and built another palace, probably also surrounded with a garden. Towards the close of his life he founded a domed chapel as a necropolis for himself and his family in the Jasna Góra sanctuary in Czestochowa; that undertaking was completed by his descendants. He lived most often in a wooden manor near the King's residence in Warsaw. As the owner of the re-structured castle in Boleslawiec and two very interesting palaces Kacper Denhoff counts among the most prominent founders of magnate residences in the first half of the 17th c.

Keywords

EN

DENHOFF KACPER FOUNDATIONS (17TH C. POLAND)

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 403-418
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Kajzer L.

• L. Kajzer, Uniwersytet Lódzki, Instytut Archeologii, ul. Pomoreska 96, 910492 Lódz, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA00701760