Villa Rotonda in Lubostroń in the 18th–19th c. A palace “Livable though unpleasant to live in”

Abstract

Inwendig kann man es wohnbar, aber nicht wöhnlich nennen (“The interiors can be called livable though unpleasant to live in”), wrote Johann Wolfgang Goethe in his diary of the “Italian trip”, after he stayed in Villa Rotonda near Vincenza in September 1786. He would probably have thought the same about the Polish version of Villa Rotonda, built in 1800–1804 in Lubostroń by Stanisław Zawadzki, commissioned by Count Fryderyk Skórzewski. In addition to the Villa, the Lubostroń residential complex included a two-storey outhouse, a two-winged outbuilding used for household purposes and as living quarters, and a park. The concept of the palace, designed on a square plan, was dominated by the central rotunda, inscribed within the internal square of the layout. To decorate his residence Count Skórzewski hired two painters, Antoni Smuglewicz and Jan Bogumił Plersch, and some stuccoists who had probably trained in the Warsaw workshops working for King Stanislaus Augustus. In 1804 Antoni Smuglewicz painted an illusionist decoration all over the ground floor and the staircase. The characteristic stucco decoration of the rotunda salon was completed soon after 1811. It includes grand scenes in relief: The battle of Płowce (highlighting the episode of King Ladislaus the Elbow-high talking to the wounded knight Florian Szary), Queen Jadwiga’s conversation with the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad von Jungingen (in which the Queen prophesied that the Teutonic Knights would be defeated), The battle of Koronowo (featuring the bravado charge of knight Jan Naszan) and Marianna Skórzewska presenting the design of the Bydgoszcz Canal to King Frederic the Great. Skórzewski’s palace, intended to be a family seat, became quite a sensation in residential architecture; yet the choice of the Palladian model of a domed central villa did not add to the comfort of everyday life. Most of the interior space is taken by the huge rotunda hall, which precludes any usage of large parts of the mezzanine. The form of a domed villa was not suited to the climate of the region on the Noteć River, its meadows and bushes being wet and muddy for the greater part of the year and thus breeding mosquitos, which made it difficult to enjoy nature. In winter, the huge rotunda salon was not heated, which decreased the effectiveness of heating in the surrounding rooms. Count Skórzewski, however, put the semantic function of architecture before comfort, trying to build his family’s pantheon.