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HISTORY
The Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw, is a charming must-see palace and garden complex, which stretches within the area of nearby 80 hectares.
The origins of Łazienki date back to the cusp of the 17th century, when Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, the Grand Royal Marshal was the owner of Ujazdów. A sophisticated Bathhouse was built here at that time.
In 1764 Ujazdów became the property of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, who established his summer residence here and gave it its general appearance. The executors of king’s ideas included many artists like architects – Dominik Merlini, Jan Chrystian Kamsetser and Jakub Kubicki, painters – Jan Bogumił Plersch and Marcello Bacciarelli, sculptors – Andrzej Le Brun, Jakub Monaldi and Franciszek Pinck.
It took over two decades, starting from 1772, to metamorphose the baroque Lubomirski Bathhouse to the classicist Palace on the Isle, with the picturesque southern facade and the monumental northern one adorned with a column portico. To this day the three chambers of the ground floor preserved the baroque décor dating back to the Lubomirski times. Other interiors are decorated with original ornamentation made by notable artists of the Stanislaus period including furniture, gold-plated bronzes and copies of antique sculptures as well as magnificent paintings.
In 1774 the White House was erected. It was designed for the royal sisters and had identical decorations on all facades. In its representative chambers one was able to admire the original polychromy made by Plersch.
In 1775 – 1783 the Myślewicki Palace with the characteristic recess in the facade and semicircular side wings was built. It was the residence of Prince Józef Poniatowski (the king’s nephew), initials of which are inscribed over the central window. Its interiors are still adorned with 18th – century paintings, works of court artists.
On the shore of the southern pond, the initially an earthy Amphitheatre with the stage on an island, was replaced in 1790 by a new stone one modelled on the ancient Herculaneum. The stage was enriched by decorations imitating antique ruins of the Forum Romanum, whereas the auditorium was adorned with the statues of famous playwrights mounted on the attic.
The road near the northern pond is enhanced by the Guardhouse, next to which there is the Grand Off-building, which during the Congress Kingdom of Poland housed the Officer-Cadet School. On November 29, 1830, the officers left the school initiating the November Uprising by the attack on the Belvedere Palace – the headquarters of the grand duke Constantine, brother of Tsar Alexander I. During the Stanislaus times, the then baroque Belverder accommodated officials. One of the outbuildings housed a faience manufactory, which produced the so-called „belvedere” faience.
The Royal Orangery, erected in 1786-88 on the plan of the rectangular horseshoe, with the southern facade of the core structure broken up by pilasters and arcaded great windows, houses the magnificent interior, ranked among the most notable international examples of authentic 18th-century manorial theatres. The theatre’s interior is made of wood. The auditorium, consisting of stalls and surrounding balconies, is richly decorated with paintings. Walls between the balconies, divided by twin pilasters, are adorned with female statues holding chandeliers. Also the Royal Orangery houses the famous Gallery of Polish Sculpture (XVI – XX c.). It is unique Gallery of this kind in Poland.
With time the garden, part of which was composed in the spirit of regular arrangements and part was landscaped, had been changing its appearance as well. In 1778 the White House along with the Bathhouse was joint via the so-called Royal Promenade. In its proximity a pavilion, designed for the fashionable at that time Trou Madame game, was erected. Soon, it was changed into a theatre, called the Small Theatre, which in 1830 was replaced by the New Guardhouse. The old canals and water bodies near the Bathhouse were transformed into scenic ponds. The Palace on the Isle featured a view on the water cascade and stone bridge where the monument to Jan III Sobieski was erected. The garden was beautified by a myriad of arbours, bridges, sculptures and waterworks – one of them in time was modelled on the ancient tomb of Cecilia Metelli on via Appia near Rome.
The last king of Poland shaped the Łazienki in the classicist style, however, he bestowed upon it an individual hallmark, in accordance with his own aesthetic concept. For this reason it is named the Stanislaus Augustus style.
During the partitions of Poland, when the Łazienki were taken over by the tsar’s court, the Belveder was reconstructed and several pavilions, also in classicist style were built.
In December 1944 the Nazis burnt the Palace on the Isle, drilling nearly a thousand holes in its walls for dynamite, intending to blow it up. Fortunately, they didn’t have time to do it. After the war the Palace on the Isle was thoroughly reconstructed.
Today, the Royal Łazienki Residence fulfils functions of a museum and the garden, being
visited by a throng of tourists from the country and the entire world, at the same time serving as a splendid promoter of culture.
