Pusłowski Palace
Kraków Monuments
A Neo-Renaissance villa at Westerplatte Street 10 in Wesoła, in the Old Town district, rebuilt in 1886 for Count Zygmunt Pusłowski to a design by Tadeusz Stryjeński and Władysław Ekielski. The building received a new facade and a corner two-storey arcaded loggia; a large Neo-Baroque staircase was also created. Zygmunt Pusłowski gathered a rich collection of works of art in the palace, and the stained glass for the palace chapel window was designed by Jan Matejko.
History
The villa at Westerplatte Street 10 in Wesoła stands on the site where, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a granary with a garden belonging to the Kraków burgher Walenty Bartsch. The barrel-vaulted cellars of the present palace are a reminder of it. In 1821 the architect Szczepan Humbert converted the building into a residence for Sykstus Lewkowicz, creating a single-storey house in a large garden. In 1845 the villa was thoroughly rebuilt for Ludwik de Laveaux, and in 1873 Maksymilian Nitsch added an upper floor for Konstanty Rohoziński. In the years that followed the owners changed frequently.
The decisive year was 1885, when the property was bought by Count Zygmunt Pusłowski. In 1886 it was rebuilt to a design by Tadeusz Stryjeński and Władysław Ekielski as a neo-Renaissance villa in a garden. It was given a new façade and a two-storey corner loggia with arches and pillars. Inside there was now a large neo-Baroque staircase and a through hall, fireplaces brought from France, ornate doors and inlaid floors. The chapel was decorated with valuable sculptures and a 16th-century late Gothic triptych, and the stained glass for its window was designed by Jan Matejko.
Zygmunt Pusłowski housed a rich art collection in the palace's reception rooms. Paintings by Artur Grottger, Jacek Malczewski and Jan Matejko hung there, as well as works by Cranach, Rubens and Delacroix. There were also Gothic and Renaissance sculptures, 17th- and 18th-century Gdańsk furniture, tapestries, clocks and antique weapons, and the residence also had a library of 40,000 volumes. Zygmunt's son Ksawery, secretary to Prime Minister Paderewski, hosted the future US President Herbert Hoover and the Romanian royal couple here. In 1936 he received the heir to the Dutch throne, later Queen Juliana, during her honeymoon in Poland. In 1938 the palace hosted an exhibition of old clocks, and in 1939 an exhibition of miniatures; the proceeds of both went towards the construction of a new building for the National Museum. The collections survived the occupation.
In 1996-2008 the palace was restored with funds from the Social Committee for the Restoration of Kraków's Monuments. Today it houses the Institute of Musicology of the Jagiellonian University, and since 2011 a monument to Ignacy Jan Paderewski has stood in front of the villa.
Did you know?
The Pusłowski family collection was meant to remain an undivided whole, but that did not happen. In 1953 Ksawery Pusłowski gave a hundred works to the Jagiellonian University, and after his death the rest of the movable property was taken over by the Jagiellonian University Museum.