DOI Heft:
Nr. 3
DOI Artikel:Artykuły
DOI Artikel:Kwiatkowski, Marek: Na temat rezydencji przy ul. Aleksandria w Warszawie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71007#0514
504
Marek Kwiatkowski
On the Mansion in Aleksandria Street in Warsaw
The Warsaw palace of Janusz Sanguszko and his wife
Karolina nee Gozdzki was raised in Aleksandria
Street, replacing the Gozdzki Baroque residence
devoured in the 1776 fire. The construction of the
palace conducted in 1777-81was possibly tem-
porarily interrupted in September 1778 due to the
divorce of the Sanguszkos. Karolina remarried
Karol de Nassau-Siegen in September 1780, after
which the works were continued following the so-far
design by Szymon Bogumił Zug. The paper's Author
confronted the architect's drawings with the
discussed palace in his monograph on Zug published
in 1971.
It may have been Karolina's interest in theatre that
resulted in including a theatre auditorium within the
palace. This was the first and only palace in Warsaw
with a theatre consciously located within the building
already at the designing stage. However, including
such a large hall within the design posed some
aesthetical challenges, particularly as the architect's
intention was to place a perfectly circular drawing
room on the axis of the garden section, a novelty in
the up-to-then palace architecture. Therefore, he
allocated theatre space to one of the lateral avant-
corpses. The stage, together with the adjacent dining
room, had a permanent decoration featuring an
engaged colonnade with Corinthian capitals.
Around the same time also the National Theatre
in Krasiński Square was raised, while King
Stanislaus Augustus transformed the Trou-Madame
Pavilion into a theatre too. The King may have
personally seen Karolina's theatre as he was fond of
her second husband, which can be well testified by
Jean Baptiste le Paon's painting displayed at the
Łazienki Palace and showing Prince of Nasau
hunting a jaguar on Argentina's coast. Earlier, i.e., in
1773, Kazimierz Poniatowski had built a theatre in
his Solec garden. There, however, it was a pavilion
separate from the palace. Izabella Lubomirska was
intending to do the same in her Mokotów garden.
The idea of combining the theatre with the dwelling
quarters and its implementation outdistanced many
other concepts.
The newly-raised palace in Aleksandria Street
became a popular venue in Warsaw, the hostess
holding banquets with theatre shows, in which she
most commonly starred herself, thus making her
entertainment really attractive. Such operas as,
among others, Dido by the Venetian composer
Francesco Cavalli and The Marriage of Figaro by
Mozart were staged there.
A fragment of a water reservoir located below
the escarpment was incorporated into the estate. Its
previous regular shape was transformed into an
extensive pond with jagged banks, this echoing the
solutions applied in the Powązki and Mokotów
gardens. The design may have been executed by
Zug. The outline of this centrally located interesting
garden can be found in the plan of Warsaw from ca
1815 made by Zygmunt Vogel, marking some
solutions from Karolina's times. The garden's traces
are also visible in the plan of Warsaw from 1829.
The Palace of Karolina Sanguszko - de Nassau
burnt down in mid-1787. It was thoroughly
destroyed in the part with the theatre where the fire
might have actually started. Initially, the owner was
planning to reconstruct it in a more sumptuous form,
to the extent that she even ordered the relevant
designs, however after the building's part preserved
after the fire had been adjusted to serve dwelling
purposes, she gave the idea up for lack of funds.
The Author is of the opinion that the recon-
struction project can be associated with a set of Zug's
designs representing a stately palace nicknamed
"Belvedere". When starting the first drawings for the
Sanguszkos, Zug was 44; preparing the new versions
after the fire, he was aged 55. In both, however, he
demonstrated an astounding skill of creating new
visions with the application of the same elements.
The total of 16 drawings, showing nine concepts,
which certainly cannot be judged as sketches, but as
drawings finished off in details, illustrate the process
of an idea being crystallized, step by step, yet at the
same time a unique quality of the architect's concept
around one theme. Although the incorporated forms
echo French models (promoted by J.H. Mansard,
J.F. Blondel, J.B. Bullet de Champlain), their
application in Warsaw, or more strictly speaking in
Poland, was a pioneering endeavour.
The new palace designed following the fire,
although devoid of the theatre, was to feature a vast
dining room, equipped with amphitheatre seats
allowing the audience to admire shows. In one ofthe
designs, the building's front was to be covered with
a two-storeyed column gallery; in the other version
in front of the facade, filling the width of the avant-
corps, there was to be placed a two-storeyed
colonnaded gallery, turning into quarter-circular
wings encircling the courtyard, and closed with
porticos with attics.
The post-fire ruin which remained in place for
another half a century was associated with the name
Marek Kwiatkowski
On the Mansion in Aleksandria Street in Warsaw
The Warsaw palace of Janusz Sanguszko and his wife
Karolina nee Gozdzki was raised in Aleksandria
Street, replacing the Gozdzki Baroque residence
devoured in the 1776 fire. The construction of the
palace conducted in 1777-81was possibly tem-
porarily interrupted in September 1778 due to the
divorce of the Sanguszkos. Karolina remarried
Karol de Nassau-Siegen in September 1780, after
which the works were continued following the so-far
design by Szymon Bogumił Zug. The paper's Author
confronted the architect's drawings with the
discussed palace in his monograph on Zug published
in 1971.
It may have been Karolina's interest in theatre that
resulted in including a theatre auditorium within the
palace. This was the first and only palace in Warsaw
with a theatre consciously located within the building
already at the designing stage. However, including
such a large hall within the design posed some
aesthetical challenges, particularly as the architect's
intention was to place a perfectly circular drawing
room on the axis of the garden section, a novelty in
the up-to-then palace architecture. Therefore, he
allocated theatre space to one of the lateral avant-
corpses. The stage, together with the adjacent dining
room, had a permanent decoration featuring an
engaged colonnade with Corinthian capitals.
Around the same time also the National Theatre
in Krasiński Square was raised, while King
Stanislaus Augustus transformed the Trou-Madame
Pavilion into a theatre too. The King may have
personally seen Karolina's theatre as he was fond of
her second husband, which can be well testified by
Jean Baptiste le Paon's painting displayed at the
Łazienki Palace and showing Prince of Nasau
hunting a jaguar on Argentina's coast. Earlier, i.e., in
1773, Kazimierz Poniatowski had built a theatre in
his Solec garden. There, however, it was a pavilion
separate from the palace. Izabella Lubomirska was
intending to do the same in her Mokotów garden.
The idea of combining the theatre with the dwelling
quarters and its implementation outdistanced many
other concepts.
The newly-raised palace in Aleksandria Street
became a popular venue in Warsaw, the hostess
holding banquets with theatre shows, in which she
most commonly starred herself, thus making her
entertainment really attractive. Such operas as,
among others, Dido by the Venetian composer
Francesco Cavalli and The Marriage of Figaro by
Mozart were staged there.
A fragment of a water reservoir located below
the escarpment was incorporated into the estate. Its
previous regular shape was transformed into an
extensive pond with jagged banks, this echoing the
solutions applied in the Powązki and Mokotów
gardens. The design may have been executed by
Zug. The outline of this centrally located interesting
garden can be found in the plan of Warsaw from ca
1815 made by Zygmunt Vogel, marking some
solutions from Karolina's times. The garden's traces
are also visible in the plan of Warsaw from 1829.
The Palace of Karolina Sanguszko - de Nassau
burnt down in mid-1787. It was thoroughly
destroyed in the part with the theatre where the fire
might have actually started. Initially, the owner was
planning to reconstruct it in a more sumptuous form,
to the extent that she even ordered the relevant
designs, however after the building's part preserved
after the fire had been adjusted to serve dwelling
purposes, she gave the idea up for lack of funds.
The Author is of the opinion that the recon-
struction project can be associated with a set of Zug's
designs representing a stately palace nicknamed
"Belvedere". When starting the first drawings for the
Sanguszkos, Zug was 44; preparing the new versions
after the fire, he was aged 55. In both, however, he
demonstrated an astounding skill of creating new
visions with the application of the same elements.
The total of 16 drawings, showing nine concepts,
which certainly cannot be judged as sketches, but as
drawings finished off in details, illustrate the process
of an idea being crystallized, step by step, yet at the
same time a unique quality of the architect's concept
around one theme. Although the incorporated forms
echo French models (promoted by J.H. Mansard,
J.F. Blondel, J.B. Bullet de Champlain), their
application in Warsaw, or more strictly speaking in
Poland, was a pioneering endeavour.
The new palace designed following the fire,
although devoid of the theatre, was to feature a vast
dining room, equipped with amphitheatre seats
allowing the audience to admire shows. In one ofthe
designs, the building's front was to be covered with
a two-storeyed column gallery; in the other version
in front of the facade, filling the width of the avant-
corps, there was to be placed a two-storeyed
colonnaded gallery, turning into quarter-circular
wings encircling the courtyard, and closed with
porticos with attics.
The post-fire ruin which remained in place for
another half a century was associated with the name