EN
The architectonic investigations in question concern a small fragment of the Blue Palace: a conservatory and cellars underneath the eastern part of the main corps and the eastern wing. Despite this extremely restricted range, the outcome of the studies proved to be very interesting, even sensational, and offered new information about the earliest stages in the construction of the palace as well as modern fortifications in this fragment of the town. Heretofore investigations pertaining to the Blue Palace were limited to an analysis of archival material, without documents from the end turn of the nineteenth century. The wall structure has never been examined. The point of departure, based on an analysis of pertinent literature and up to now unutilised documents, was composed of four main stages in the construction and expansion of the palace as well as changes in the development of the terrain. The discovery of a stage preceding the construction of the first object — a manor house from the turn of the seventeenth century — proved to be a veritable breakthrough. In order to verify the material traces of phases in the erection of the palace, work was conducted primarily in the cellars and a sondage trench was dug in the eastern courtyard. Conclusions drawn from studies, whose basic purpose was to provide conservation directives for the repair and adaptation of the cellars, slightly alter the interpretation of the history of the palace itself, but ultimately comprise only a contribution to the very interesting history of the western extremities of Warsaw at the turn of the seventeenth century. Supplementary investigations are required for the upper storeys of the corps of the main palace. The original shape of the Potocki manor house — both its dimensions and decoration are of particular interest; we could be dealing with the only extant remnants of residential construction outside the town boundaries, dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. The original course of Senatorska Street, disturbed by the manor situated at its end, calls for proper interpretation. Changes in the boundaries of the estate are so well documented that it seems strange that the garden of the Blue Palace was included into the complex of the Saxon Garden. On the other hand, attempts at a re-division of the terrain by resorting to fences or hedges should be regarded as harmful from the viewpoint of the retention and protection of cultural property.