DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38678#0018
sińce some ideas of Palladio had been derived from the Vitruvius treatise, it can be assumed
that it was by this route that ancient architecture affected the process of the development of
neoclassical architecture in the 18th century; this would be parallel to the role of Raphael and
his contemporaries in the field of decorative painting.
The Palladian trend in Poland was most fully represented by Stanisław Kostka Potocki and
the architect Piotr Aigner. Their joint work was a church faęade, uniąue in Poland, designed
on the basis of Venetian church faęades, above all San Giorgio Maggiore. This was the faęade
of the Bernardine church of St. Annę in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in Warsaw, built
between 1786 and 1788.
Palladio’s famous Villa Rotonda, a central domed pałace with pillared porticoes, inspired
a few unbuilt designs, including one by Zug. This villa, as a distant stereotype, can be related
to two buildings in Poland: the pałace designed by Domenico Merlini at Królikarnia in
Warsaw (1786-1789) and that by Stanisław Zawadzki at Lubostroń (1800).
These are single examples. Palladianism in Polish neoclassical architecture brings to mind
above all those pałace designs where the main part of the pałace was linked to its wings with
galleries, most freąuently semi-circular, elliptic at times, the shape of a horseshoe, refracted
at right angles and even straight lines. Palladio’s galleries had been pillared, in Poland some
would be arcaded, taking the character of a refracted pałace wing or, in the most modest
executions, reduced to a refracted wali.
This type of Palladian pałace design occurred in Poland in the seventies and achieved great
popularity, soon spreading all over the territory of the former Commonwealth, from Great
Poland to Volhynia and Podoba. We know morę than forty such pałace complexes dating
from the last ąuarter of the 18th century, and most certainly there were morę. The Palladian
type thus became characteristic of the architecture of the maturę Polish neoclassicism of the
Age of Enlightenment. To this may have contributed the representational, monumentalised
appearance of the residences, corresponding to magnate and noblemen’s ambitions, but
utilitarian reasons were also of some significance. As in England, there was here convenient
communication with annexes, where kitchens and other service rooms were located, where
clerks and poor relations would live and where guests would stay.
Warsaw, Royal Castle, draft design for reconstruction and expansion, D. Merlini, 1773
13
that it was by this route that ancient architecture affected the process of the development of
neoclassical architecture in the 18th century; this would be parallel to the role of Raphael and
his contemporaries in the field of decorative painting.
The Palladian trend in Poland was most fully represented by Stanisław Kostka Potocki and
the architect Piotr Aigner. Their joint work was a church faęade, uniąue in Poland, designed
on the basis of Venetian church faęades, above all San Giorgio Maggiore. This was the faęade
of the Bernardine church of St. Annę in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street in Warsaw, built
between 1786 and 1788.
Palladio’s famous Villa Rotonda, a central domed pałace with pillared porticoes, inspired
a few unbuilt designs, including one by Zug. This villa, as a distant stereotype, can be related
to two buildings in Poland: the pałace designed by Domenico Merlini at Królikarnia in
Warsaw (1786-1789) and that by Stanisław Zawadzki at Lubostroń (1800).
These are single examples. Palladianism in Polish neoclassical architecture brings to mind
above all those pałace designs where the main part of the pałace was linked to its wings with
galleries, most freąuently semi-circular, elliptic at times, the shape of a horseshoe, refracted
at right angles and even straight lines. Palladio’s galleries had been pillared, in Poland some
would be arcaded, taking the character of a refracted pałace wing or, in the most modest
executions, reduced to a refracted wali.
This type of Palladian pałace design occurred in Poland in the seventies and achieved great
popularity, soon spreading all over the territory of the former Commonwealth, from Great
Poland to Volhynia and Podoba. We know morę than forty such pałace complexes dating
from the last ąuarter of the 18th century, and most certainly there were morę. The Palladian
type thus became characteristic of the architecture of the maturę Polish neoclassicism of the
Age of Enlightenment. To this may have contributed the representational, monumentalised
appearance of the residences, corresponding to magnate and noblemen’s ambitions, but
utilitarian reasons were also of some significance. As in England, there was here convenient
communication with annexes, where kitchens and other service rooms were located, where
clerks and poor relations would live and where guests would stay.
Warsaw, Royal Castle, draft design for reconstruction and expansion, D. Merlini, 1773
13