DOI Artikel:
Omilanowska, Małgorzata: Projekty Franza Schwechtena, Édouarda André i Stanisława Witkiewicza dla Połągi
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49518#0233
223
The Designs of Franz Schwechten, Fdouard Andre and
Stanisław Witkiewicz for Palanga
The popular Lithuanian seaside resort of Palanga,
known in Polish as Połąga, was founded on the ini-
tiative of one man: Feliks Tyszkiewicz. His imagina-
tion and financial muscle permitted him to employ
such widely-known architects from Western Europę
as Franz Heinrich Schwechten and the French de-
signer of gardens, Edouard Andre, who together
came up with the notion of combining an imposing
residence with an exclusive and modem seaside spa
town. Not everything included in the original plan
was actually carried out, but what has been pre-
served alongside the surviving plans make it possi-
ble to recreate one of the most original private
building initiatives from the tum of the 19th and 20th
centuries in the territories of pre-Partition Poland.
Although the participation of Edouard Andre
was already familiar to researchers, the part played
by Franz Schwechten had remained doubtful, and it
was only thanks to German investigations, which in-
volved the discovery of his designs for Tyszkiewicz,
that all doubts as to this architecfs involvement were
finally dispelled.
Palanga belonged to the Tyszkiewicz family
from 1824 onwards. Its location was highly untypi-
cal, sińce as a result of local Baltic-German pressure
and influence the little town ceased to be a part of
Samogitia and was included in the regional territory
of Courland from 1819 until the end of the First
World War. Not that a great deal happened there un-
til 1891, when Palanga was inherited by the young-
est son of Józef Tyszkiewicz, Feliks, who was
married to Antonina of the Korzbok-Łąckis. The
choice of Franz Schwechten as architect of their new
residence was almost certainly encouraged either by
their relations Emilia and Ignacy Bniski from
Samostrzel or the neighbours of Antonina’s father,
Władysław Łącki of Pasadowo; i.e. the German
Pflug family in Brody, who already owned a pałace
that had been designed by the said architect. Andre
in almost all certainty was recommended by the
Bnińskis.
In Berlin’s Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussische
Kulturbesitz there has survived a large collection of
architectural plans and drawings by Schwechten re-
lating to Palanga. The oldest surviving designs are
dated January and the beginning of February 1896
and already relate to the building stage. Schwechten
conceived a symmetrical, two-storey building with
high-vaulted cellars and a main faęade facing north.
The plan took the broad shape of a shallow U-plan,
consisting of a main corpus and two very short front
wings placed at right-angles to the main building
connected to the latter by rounded inner corners,
while a smali veranda with open arcades was placed
in the western elevation. In the design presenting the
pałace ’s interior layout, it is elear that great attention
was paid to maximising the optical values of natural
light; even at the cost of logie, and thus rejecting
standard, traditional planning Solutions - that is to
say, it would appear that the ąuestion of suitable use
of light led the architect to apply such an unusual
layout and outer form. The curving walls, leading as
a conseąuence to obliąuely placed Windows, were
morę likely to capture as much of the dawning and
finał rays of light in the northern day as possible.
The style chosen for the elevations was in linę with
the then fashionable neo-Renaissance.
The second preserced collection of Schwechten’s
drawings relates to the stage of interior decoration.
Most of these drawings were undated, but the earliest
of these to receive a datę was completed on 3rd Sep-
tember, 1896, while the latest is signed 17th February,
1897. A successive phase of design work is repre-
sented by four drawings dated September 1897 con-
cerning the front part of the extensive terrace upon
which the pałace had been built. In 1907 the
Tyszkiewiczes decided to have a domestic chapel
added to the pałace, ordering both this as well as an
extension of the veranda and terrace on the First floor
in the rear elevation. The drawings relating to these
extensions are dated from April 1907 to March
1908, and almost certainly would have been carried
out in the same year. Schwechten was employed one
further time by the Tyszkiewiczes to enlarge their
residence in 1916, when he was supposed to have
designed extensions to guestrooms in the attic.
Dated May and July 1916, these designs were never
carried out.
Work in laying out the park designer by Edouard
Andre would have been carried out at the same time
as that on the pałace. The garden designer is known
to have been in Palanga in 1898, and it is almost
certain that at this time the finał plans for the park
laid out over the successive three years must have
taken shape at that time. Andre madę freąuent use of
the scheme of garden planning in the so-called style
mixte which involved the laying out of a formal park
in immediate proximity to the pałace and then land-
scaping morę distant parts.
While the pałace and gardens of Feliks Tysz-
kiewicz were coming into being, so too was the spa
town. While beąueathing the ancient little town to
The Designs of Franz Schwechten, Fdouard Andre and
Stanisław Witkiewicz for Palanga
The popular Lithuanian seaside resort of Palanga,
known in Polish as Połąga, was founded on the ini-
tiative of one man: Feliks Tyszkiewicz. His imagina-
tion and financial muscle permitted him to employ
such widely-known architects from Western Europę
as Franz Heinrich Schwechten and the French de-
signer of gardens, Edouard Andre, who together
came up with the notion of combining an imposing
residence with an exclusive and modem seaside spa
town. Not everything included in the original plan
was actually carried out, but what has been pre-
served alongside the surviving plans make it possi-
ble to recreate one of the most original private
building initiatives from the tum of the 19th and 20th
centuries in the territories of pre-Partition Poland.
Although the participation of Edouard Andre
was already familiar to researchers, the part played
by Franz Schwechten had remained doubtful, and it
was only thanks to German investigations, which in-
volved the discovery of his designs for Tyszkiewicz,
that all doubts as to this architecfs involvement were
finally dispelled.
Palanga belonged to the Tyszkiewicz family
from 1824 onwards. Its location was highly untypi-
cal, sińce as a result of local Baltic-German pressure
and influence the little town ceased to be a part of
Samogitia and was included in the regional territory
of Courland from 1819 until the end of the First
World War. Not that a great deal happened there un-
til 1891, when Palanga was inherited by the young-
est son of Józef Tyszkiewicz, Feliks, who was
married to Antonina of the Korzbok-Łąckis. The
choice of Franz Schwechten as architect of their new
residence was almost certainly encouraged either by
their relations Emilia and Ignacy Bniski from
Samostrzel or the neighbours of Antonina’s father,
Władysław Łącki of Pasadowo; i.e. the German
Pflug family in Brody, who already owned a pałace
that had been designed by the said architect. Andre
in almost all certainty was recommended by the
Bnińskis.
In Berlin’s Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussische
Kulturbesitz there has survived a large collection of
architectural plans and drawings by Schwechten re-
lating to Palanga. The oldest surviving designs are
dated January and the beginning of February 1896
and already relate to the building stage. Schwechten
conceived a symmetrical, two-storey building with
high-vaulted cellars and a main faęade facing north.
The plan took the broad shape of a shallow U-plan,
consisting of a main corpus and two very short front
wings placed at right-angles to the main building
connected to the latter by rounded inner corners,
while a smali veranda with open arcades was placed
in the western elevation. In the design presenting the
pałace ’s interior layout, it is elear that great attention
was paid to maximising the optical values of natural
light; even at the cost of logie, and thus rejecting
standard, traditional planning Solutions - that is to
say, it would appear that the ąuestion of suitable use
of light led the architect to apply such an unusual
layout and outer form. The curving walls, leading as
a conseąuence to obliąuely placed Windows, were
morę likely to capture as much of the dawning and
finał rays of light in the northern day as possible.
The style chosen for the elevations was in linę with
the then fashionable neo-Renaissance.
The second preserced collection of Schwechten’s
drawings relates to the stage of interior decoration.
Most of these drawings were undated, but the earliest
of these to receive a datę was completed on 3rd Sep-
tember, 1896, while the latest is signed 17th February,
1897. A successive phase of design work is repre-
sented by four drawings dated September 1897 con-
cerning the front part of the extensive terrace upon
which the pałace had been built. In 1907 the
Tyszkiewiczes decided to have a domestic chapel
added to the pałace, ordering both this as well as an
extension of the veranda and terrace on the First floor
in the rear elevation. The drawings relating to these
extensions are dated from April 1907 to March
1908, and almost certainly would have been carried
out in the same year. Schwechten was employed one
further time by the Tyszkiewiczes to enlarge their
residence in 1916, when he was supposed to have
designed extensions to guestrooms in the attic.
Dated May and July 1916, these designs were never
carried out.
Work in laying out the park designer by Edouard
Andre would have been carried out at the same time
as that on the pałace. The garden designer is known
to have been in Palanga in 1898, and it is almost
certain that at this time the finał plans for the park
laid out over the successive three years must have
taken shape at that time. Andre madę freąuent use of
the scheme of garden planning in the so-called style
mixte which involved the laying out of a formal park
in immediate proximity to the pałace and then land-
scaping morę distant parts.
While the pałace and gardens of Feliks Tysz-
kiewicz were coming into being, so too was the spa
town. While beąueathing the ancient little town to