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Na marginesie prac konserwatorskich w pałacu w Kruszynie

100%

Jeżewska E.

Ochrona Zabytków

1979

issue 1

23-32

An early baroque complex of the palace and park at Kruszyna is one of the most valuable monuments in Częstochowa voivodship. Its conservation started in 1970 but it still gives rise to some controversy. The most comprehensive book on this historic complex is a monographic study made in 1962 by Jerzy Baranowski. The residence was set up by Kacper Denhoff who wanted it to be his family seat. Unfortunately it is not certain until today whodesirned the Kruszyna complex. The lack o f detailed descriptions and 17th- century iconographies make it difficult to reconstruct the original appearance of the structures. Most of the material enabling us to establish the original form of the palace complex has been prowided by archaeological and architectonic studies carried out in 1970. The seat of K. Denhoff was designed on the north-south axis and in the 17th century’ it consisted of the palace, powder-magazine, theatre, a building belonging to the former Koniecpolskis’ court (who owned Kruszyna before Denhoff), all o f them situated around an impressive courtyard, and finally the park and fortifications. The most imposing building has always bee^n and still is the palace and therefore its conservation is discussed in more detail. The palace has preserved its architectonic'form almost unchanged. Dating back to 1630 and built in brick in a mannerist-baroque style, with a hip- roof and without cellars, the two-storey building was projected on a squarelike plane with a small courtyard in the centre (this projection has always been compared to that o f the Ujazdów Castle of King Sigismund Ul Waza, but in the author’s view it shows still more resemblance to the projections and designs made by Vincenzo Scamozzi, except for the fact that a great central hall found in Italian buildings has been replaced at Kruszyna with an open courtyard at the top). The longest northern front wing of the palace, with a loggia on the outer side of the courtyard, protrudes with breaks on side elevations. The interior of the palace is made of rooms en suite in one route. On the ground floor they form a vault and on the first floor the rooms are roofed. The interfloor connection is via a staircase. From the east and west the palace is flanked with octagonal towers standing at a distance of ca 30 meters away. The palace underwent a number of transformations throughout centuries. And so, in ca 1800 four side alcoves were added to southern quoins of the palace. In the period of from the sixties of the 19th century to early 20th century the following alterations were made inside the building : some rooms were made smaller, a few corridors were introduced, the entrance hall was linked with the loggia. Outside, annexes, devoid of any style, were added to the eastern elevation, while the western elevation was enriched with a gallery. Besides, the appearance and setting of windows over the loggia on the northern facade were changed. At the beginning of present reconditioning works some of these late unfavourable alterations were eliminated. Northern annexes and a gallery on the west side have been pulled down. In accordance with technical documentation drawn by Warsaw monument conservation workshops, corridors inside the palace are to be removed and modern installations will be introduced. As yet, however, not all requirements of the palace that would allow to display its greatest artistic values have been met and this should be done on the occasion of works under way. It is worthwhile to reproduce a very interesting and original mannerist arrangement of the ground floor. To make it readable, it is necessary to open the loggia to the north and to separate it from a narrow entrance hall along the pillars (by means of woodwork ?), to throw open a passage in a renaissance framing from the vestibule to a main staircase and at the same time to brick up side (eastern and northern) door openings of the loggia. It also seems justified to reconstruct a staircase in the eastern wing of the palace which undoubtly was there in the 17th century (and in a modified and modernized form stayed until 1970, at present pulled down), as it was indispensable for a direct communication between the masters’ dining room on the first floor and kitchen premises on the ground floor. Moreover, an original connection between the audience hall (over the loggia and entrance hall) and a room adjoining it on the west side might also be restored without ruining a 19th-century wainscoting o f the audience hall in which two doors were put in, by bricking up a southern door opening in the western wall o f the audience hall and leaving the other door niche. The positioning of a toilet on the first floor of the southern wing of the building, next to the hall with a very rich and original decor (a polychrome ceilling, door framing and mannerist mantelpiece in black marble and a black and white marble floor), does not seem to be appropriate, especially that in future that hall will be a central point for visitors. As far as the reconditioning of elevations is concerned, ceramic tiles and not sheet iron should be used to cover roofs, exactly as it is done in the Bishops’ Palace in Kielce or the Warsaw Royal Castle. Roof tiles at Kruszyna used to match in colour pink and white finish of the northern loggia. Moreover, it is necessary to restore a proper colouring of the coat of arms „The Wild Boar” in window framings on the first floor on eastern, northern and western elevations : the head of the boar has to be black (and not red as at present) against a white/silver background. The author finds it also essential to reconstruct three window openings over the loggia in their original bigger size ; this would make it possible to eliminate the later plaster- -strip framing, shocking in comparison with a stylish outer sculptural decoration of the loggia and to straighten a crowning cornice. Reconditioning works should also include the reconstruction of the palace’s connections with eight-sided towers in form of a brick-wall screen (found in the Kielce palace and other early-baroque structures, e.g. sacral buildings in Koniecpole, Kruszyna) in order to Inclose the central courtyard from the south and to separate the iatter from the garden as well as to point out a longitudal axis of the courtyard against the axis of the whole residence.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Jeżewska E.

1 1979

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Na marginesie prac konserwatorskich w pałacu w Kruszynie