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DOI Artikel:Gombin, Krzysztof: Pałac Potockich w Lublinie w świetle osiemnastowiecznych źródeł: =
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.37081#0306
304
KRZYSZTOF GOMBIN
THE POTOCKI PALACE IN LUBLIN
IN THE LIGHT OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SOURCES
Summary
The Potocki palace in Lublin was for the first mentioned in the sources in 1734. It is not,
however, on the plan of Chevalier d’Orxen of 1716, hence it was constructed between those
years. It was built for Jerzy Potocki, and most probably was ready in 1730, when his sone,
Eustachy, studied at the Lublin Jesuit college. There are no hints that the palace built in the
times of Jerzy Potocki was something special with regard to its artistic class and scale. The
magnate stayed mainly in Serniki, where he lived in a small wooden mansion of little artistic
value. It is there where his sons were born. The fact that the Lublin seat was not a
representative building, fit for a bigger event, is evidenced when Eustachy Potocki’s wedding
with Marianna nee Kątska (December 1741) was organised in August Czartoryski’s
neighbouring palace. The construction and modernisation works in the Potocki palace, as
evidenced by the sources, were conducted as late as the 1750s, already after Jerzy Potocki’s
death, when its owner was Eustachy. It follows from Eustachy’s correspondence, now in the
Main Archives of the Ancient Acts in Warszawa and in the State Archives in Kraków (the
branch at Wawel), that some sentences about the Lublin palace can be found. Thus between
January and the beginning of April 1755 the side pavilions were covered with a new shingle,
mirrors were imported, curtains and upholstery were installed; glass, lead, calcium, and plaster
were used for some unidentified works. They were all related to Eustachy’s function of the
marshal of the Crown Tribunal, which he took in 1754, and needed a seat appropriate to this
rank. During the proceedings of the Tribunal in Potocki’s palace there were festive receptions
and balls: on the occasion of the king’s, president’s, the marshal’s, or hetman Jan Klemens
Branicki’s nameday; another event was when a Turkish parliament member stayed in the
palace, or the Tribunal’s limit. Eustachy Potocki’s son, Stanisław Kostka, was born in the
Lublin palace.
There are only circumstantial evidences as to who could design and supervise
modernisation works in the palace in the 1750s. They irrefutably point to Jakub Fontana who
then worked at the construction of the palace in Radzyń Podlaski. Potocki himself thought that
he should be consulted about the smallest steps. We do not know at present the inventory of
the Lublin palace from the times of Eustachy Potocki. The only one we have comes from
1783. According to this inventory, the floors in the Lublin palace were made of timber (in the
vestibules it was made of bricks). It follows that the whole building was rather poorer, in the
spirit of a gentleman’s residence. The inventory does not say anything about the upholstery
of the rooms on the ground floor. The rooms on the first floor were crimson, red, yellow, and
blue. The “big room” was whitened in 1783. It goes without saying that this white colour
meant that its new owners had a neo-classical taste, that colour could not come from
Eustachy’s times. It seems that in 1755 the colour green was most likely.
The furniture mentioned in the inventory of 1783 is obviously a remnant of several sets
from various interiors. The decisive majority of the then preserved was of similar colours: red,
blue, and red-blue. We also know the other units of the yellow set. The inventory of 1783
mentions the “Big portrait of August II in golden frames.” It might have been the remaining
part of a larger collection. We know that in the nineteenth century the royal portraits hang in
another residence built by Eustachy Potocki - in Radzyń Podlaski, from where after the First
World War they was conveyed to the National Museum in Warszawa. Most of them have been
preserved up to date (the portraits of August III, Stanisław Leszczyński, August II, Sigismund
KRZYSZTOF GOMBIN
THE POTOCKI PALACE IN LUBLIN
IN THE LIGHT OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SOURCES
Summary
The Potocki palace in Lublin was for the first mentioned in the sources in 1734. It is not,
however, on the plan of Chevalier d’Orxen of 1716, hence it was constructed between those
years. It was built for Jerzy Potocki, and most probably was ready in 1730, when his sone,
Eustachy, studied at the Lublin Jesuit college. There are no hints that the palace built in the
times of Jerzy Potocki was something special with regard to its artistic class and scale. The
magnate stayed mainly in Serniki, where he lived in a small wooden mansion of little artistic
value. It is there where his sons were born. The fact that the Lublin seat was not a
representative building, fit for a bigger event, is evidenced when Eustachy Potocki’s wedding
with Marianna nee Kątska (December 1741) was organised in August Czartoryski’s
neighbouring palace. The construction and modernisation works in the Potocki palace, as
evidenced by the sources, were conducted as late as the 1750s, already after Jerzy Potocki’s
death, when its owner was Eustachy. It follows from Eustachy’s correspondence, now in the
Main Archives of the Ancient Acts in Warszawa and in the State Archives in Kraków (the
branch at Wawel), that some sentences about the Lublin palace can be found. Thus between
January and the beginning of April 1755 the side pavilions were covered with a new shingle,
mirrors were imported, curtains and upholstery were installed; glass, lead, calcium, and plaster
were used for some unidentified works. They were all related to Eustachy’s function of the
marshal of the Crown Tribunal, which he took in 1754, and needed a seat appropriate to this
rank. During the proceedings of the Tribunal in Potocki’s palace there were festive receptions
and balls: on the occasion of the king’s, president’s, the marshal’s, or hetman Jan Klemens
Branicki’s nameday; another event was when a Turkish parliament member stayed in the
palace, or the Tribunal’s limit. Eustachy Potocki’s son, Stanisław Kostka, was born in the
Lublin palace.
There are only circumstantial evidences as to who could design and supervise
modernisation works in the palace in the 1750s. They irrefutably point to Jakub Fontana who
then worked at the construction of the palace in Radzyń Podlaski. Potocki himself thought that
he should be consulted about the smallest steps. We do not know at present the inventory of
the Lublin palace from the times of Eustachy Potocki. The only one we have comes from
1783. According to this inventory, the floors in the Lublin palace were made of timber (in the
vestibules it was made of bricks). It follows that the whole building was rather poorer, in the
spirit of a gentleman’s residence. The inventory does not say anything about the upholstery
of the rooms on the ground floor. The rooms on the first floor were crimson, red, yellow, and
blue. The “big room” was whitened in 1783. It goes without saying that this white colour
meant that its new owners had a neo-classical taste, that colour could not come from
Eustachy’s times. It seems that in 1755 the colour green was most likely.
The furniture mentioned in the inventory of 1783 is obviously a remnant of several sets
from various interiors. The decisive majority of the then preserved was of similar colours: red,
blue, and red-blue. We also know the other units of the yellow set. The inventory of 1783
mentions the “Big portrait of August II in golden frames.” It might have been the remaining
part of a larger collection. We know that in the nineteenth century the royal portraits hang in
another residence built by Eustachy Potocki - in Radzyń Podlaski, from where after the First
World War they was conveyed to the National Museum in Warszawa. Most of them have been
preserved up to date (the portraits of August III, Stanisław Leszczyński, August II, Sigismund