Guzów (Żyrardów County)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country	Poland
Guzów
Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship
County	Żyrardów
Commune	Wiskitki

Palace and church in Guzów

Guzów is a village in central Poland. Between 1975-1998 it belongs to the Skierniewice Voivodeship.

[edit] History

From 1765 the owner of Guzów and surrounding grounds was Andrzej Ogiński. In 18th century became a possession of Feliks Łubieński. In 1856 whole estate was sold on the auction to Feliks Sobański. Estate of Guzów with the palace was in possession of Sobański until 1944, when the estate was incorporated to the national heritage.

Michał Kleofas Ogiński (statesman, insurrectionist, composer) was born in Guzów.

[edit] The palace and the landscape garden complex

Andrzej Ogiński has built in Guzów magnificent, brick manor house. In the second half of the 19th century, on the order of Feliks Sobański an architect Władysław Hirschel has rebuilt the manor house to a palace, modeling it on the French Loire Valley castles. Then, next to the palace was created a landscape garden designed by Walerian Kronenberg and Franciszek Szanior.

During the First World War the palace was used like a hospital next to the front-line and it was destroyed together with a landscape garden. During interwar period they were renovated but soon since Second World War whole palace decoration and furnishings have been plundered. In 1944 the palace became a national heritage. After the war it was used as flats for the employees of the sugar factory. In 1992 family of Sobański got back the palace complex.

The palace after many years of ruins still in a bad condition, like also the garden witch is overgrew by thickets. The old palace chapel(nowadays S.Felix de Valois church) is the only renewed part with the small part of the enrolled garden.

As a curiosity it's worth to say that just next to Guzów historically for the first time in Poland was started a cultivation of potato.