From both historical and artistic perspective, the former palace of Count Eduard von Pückler in Bolesławiec is one of the most valuable examples of local, 19th-century neo-Gothic architecture. For decades, it served as a residence of the nobility and wealthy industrialists, and in the difficult period of 1930s it became a place of activity for Nazi organisations. After surviving World War II, it served as the seat of several Polish enterprises and institutions. Restorations of varying scale were carried out many times, but it was never fully renovated. In 2018, after the palace was taken over by the Municipality of Bolesławiec, its future became a big question mark. It was necessary to decide on its new purpose and start fundraising efforts to save the monument from the constantly progressing degradation process.
Count von Pückler’s palace – artistic and historical value
For many years, the palace, as one of the important and valuable buildings in Bolesławiec, was included in the municipal register of monuments. In 2018, by decision of the Lower Silesian Provincial Conservator of Monuments in Wrocław, it was entered into the register of monuments and thus recognised among the most valuable architectural objects in Bolesławiec. Barbara Nowak-Obelinda, the Conservator of Monuments for the Lower Silesian Province, emphasized the importance of the building, arguing:
“The palace is an example of urban residential construction in a historicising style, characterised by a harmonious composition of the body with a dominant tower and the use of bartizans that add a soaring character to the building. The layout is part of the romantic-landscape trend in palace and garden architecture. The artistic values of the building are evidenced by a well-thought-out composition, in which neo-Gothic forms were used, as well as medallions with bas-reliefs bearing heraldic motifs (including the coat of arms of the Pückler family) as well as mythological ones. The building has not undergone significant reconstruction, no irreversible changes have been made to the interior layout and appearance of the body, thanks to which it has retained its authenticity. The palace, situated on the edge of the park, creates a coherent composition with its green surroundings; it is one of just a few complexes of this type located in the north-western part of the city. It is an important component of the urban layout of Bolesławiec and a crucial part of the local cultural identity.”
Dr. Grzegorz Grajewski, head of the Wrocław Regional Branch of the National Heritage Institute, writes: “Pückler’s suburban palace, dressed in a neo-Gothic costume, belongs to the villa suburbana type of residences developed in Europe since the first half of the 19th century. It is distinguished by a combination of parts of an older building, i.e. the lower eastern wing, with a younger, higher nave with a slender, five-storey tower serving as a belvedere, and a still slightly higher west wing. This additive structure is likely to reflect the order in which the individual parts of the palace were built, giving the whole a picturesque value, so important for the headquarters located outside the compact urban development and connected to the park.”
The palace is distinguished not only by its artistic value, but also by its interesting history. At the end of the 18th century, it was a likely site of an inn serving travellers along the road leading to Dresden. The original buildings must have been destroyed in August 1813, during the battle for the bridge on the Bóbr river between the Napoleonic army and the Russian and Prussian troops. In the second half of the 1840s, the estate was probably purchased by Count Eduard Maximilian Ferdinand Erdmann von Pückler, a representative of the Silesian-Lusatian line of the famous family which also included the owners of the Bad Muskau castle, surrounded by Europe’s largest English-style landscape park. The count was the heir to several estates, among others in Rakowice (Rothlach) and Otok (Uttig), and his wife, Countess Helena von Larisch-Moenich, additionally contributed an estate in Tomaszów (Nieder-Thomaswaldau) as her dowry. Count von Pückler purchased land on the outskirts of Bolesławiec, with the likely intention of building a modern suburban residence. There he could stay on a city visit, or as a stop on a train journey to Berlin, Dresden or Wrocław. The three-winged palace was erected around 1857 in the then-fashionable neo-gothic style.
The preserved documents show that after the death of the first owners (Eduard von Pückler passed away in 1870, and his wife Helena – in 1873), the palace in 1876 became the property or lease of a “count von Hatzfeld”, known for his love of music and horses. Most likely, it was Franz Hatzfeld zu Trachenberg, who is known to have died unmarried in 1884. He organised exquisite concerts in his home, which were eagerly attended by the bourgeois elites. He was also the initiator of a horse auction in Bolesławiec, and built an oval riding school and a riding track in the park adjacent to the residence.
Around 1880, the palace was purchased by Samson Woller, an entrepreneur from Twardogóra who lived for many years in England, where he owned worsted wool spinning mills. In 1855, he purchased a cotton factory in Leśna (Marklissa), which he transformed into the first wool spinning mill in Germany. In 1873, he bought a burnt-out mill in Bolesławiec and built a second spinning mill on the site (in 1888, both plants were formally organised into “Concordia”, a joint-stock company). The residence in Bolesławiec was not the main quarters of the powerful manufacturer who, apart from the palace in Smolnik (Schadewalde) near Leśna, also had a palace with landed estate in Dłonie near Rawicz and a large number of estates in Wielkopolska (Greater Poland). The Bolesławiec palac was more of a “business residence”, where the owner lived temporarily, as needed to directly supervise the operation of local plants. This point is confirmed by the fact that spacious warehouses were built at the back of the palace. At that time, the interior of the residence was rebuilt, and iconographic representations related to the weaving craft were placed on the façade. At the same time, the palace park was developed and extended to the west to include some former land belonging to the hospital. Its shape was most likely the work of Eduard Petzold, a famous designer of gardens and parks, who ran a nursery of ornamental plants in Bolesławiec in the years 1863-1886.
The palace was sold between 1898 and 1900 and changed owners several times over the next 20 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, it belonged to Giovanni Vallata (mentioned in 1903 and 1907), and before the First World War, it belonged to the owners of the wooden products factory Martin & Barasch (mentioned in 1913). In 1920, the building was purchased by the Bolesławiec magistrate. After the reconstruction, it received the name of the Youth House (Jugendhaus) and became the seat of various institutions involved with children and youth care.
The facility had a dormitory for schoolchildren, a nursery, a kindergarten, a tourist hostel, a counselling centre for mothers and a dental clinic for children. On the first floor of the west wing, there was a municipal library with a reading room, managed by Oskar Herbert Müller. In the years 1928-1929, it was rebuilt – as well as re-equipped – according to the design of Artur Hennig, a well-known artist and lecturer at the State Vocational School of Ceramics in Bolesławiec. Shortly afterwards, all the above-mentioned institutions were moved to other places, and a social welfare facility began to operate in the building. At the beginning of 1933, the palace was occupied by the SA militias (the assault troops of the NSDAP), which set up their sports school there. Then the building passed into the hands of another Nazi organization – RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst – Reich Labour Service), which ran a commanders’ school in it. From 1940, it served as a field hospital.
After World War II, the building was used e.g. by the Mining Works Enterprise – Ore Mining Construction Company, the Municipal Board of Residential Buildings and the Bolesławiec Construction Enterprise. Finally. in 1986 it was adapted to the needs of the Special Schools and Institutions District in Bolesławiec. In 2018, the poviat administration sold the facility to the Municipality of Bolesławiec. Piotr Roman, the city’s mayor, considered several concepts for the development of the facility. Ultimately, the idea of creating the headquarters of the Ceramics Museum prevailed. The museum had long struggled with the shortage of exhibition and storage space. In addition, its old premises could not be adapted to serve the needs of people with physical disabilities. Since the building was already entered in the register of monuments at that time, and the estimated renovation costs turned out to be very high, the plan could only be implemented if funding was obtained from external sources.
