The Koniecpolski- Radziwiłł Palace. Modernization and Transformation of the Interior Programme at the Turn of the 18th Century

Tadeusz Bernatowicz

Abstract

The Koniecpolski-Radziwiłł Palace (today: Presidential Palace) ranks among the most grandiose and prestigious residences in Warsaw. Raised in 1643-1646/56 after the design by Contante Tencalla for Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, an illustrious knight and outstanding politician, it later belonged to the Lubomirski Princes, and was purchased by Prince Michał Radziwiłł in 1674. It remained this family’s property until 1818. Beginning as of 1648, the Radziwiłłs conducted alterations and adaptations harmonized with utility and stately needs of the residents, employing the most outstanding architects active in Warsaw. Exceptionally preserved sources, compared to other Polish estates, including inventories from: 1681, 1685, 1717, 1721, 1728, 1735, as well invoices and correspondence allow to recreate the history of the building’s transformations, the range of architectural works, and the role played by the contributing architects. The materials have served to reconstruct the altering of the functional arrangement of the interiors, these having been presented in a 2-D format. The grounds for it were found in the plan Pianta del Palazzo di uarsauia [Varsavia] executed by Giovani B. Gisleni before 1655, currently at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco. Tencalla designed a palace with a loggia from the side of the courtyard, a terrace with a grotto from the side of the garden, and a long hall inside, along which stately apartments were located. He modelled himself on early Baroque villas and Rome’s palaces from the 2^nd half of the 16^th century and early 17^th century: the Papal Quirinal Palace, Villa Borghese, and Frascati’s Villa Mondragone. Since the building was not merely to serve recreational purposes, but also stately ones, the Palace was given three storeys: the ground floor, piano nobile and the mezzanine, thus joining the ranks of an open residence of French descent. The fusion of two types of residences: the Italian villa and the French palace yielded the problem of the staircase. Following the villa scheme, Tencalla designed narrow and dark stairs that were not sufficiently sumptuous. Following Tencalla’s death, Gisleni presented the design of a new staircase, this, however, not implemented. The attempts to solve the problem resurfaced in the course of subsequent adaptations and renovations of the Palace. A new stairwell was built only in the mid-18^th century as adjacent to the building from the north. In 1689-90, Giuseppe S. Bellotti renovated the Palace for Michał Radziwiłł and his wife Katarzyna née Sobieski. He renovated the stairs leading to the first floor as well as the ground-floor dining room. The Palace’s modernization was conducted on a larger scale in 1693-1701 by Augustyn W. Locci and Carlo Ceroni for the next owner Karol Radziwiłł and Anna née Sanguszko. On that occasion a spacious dining room on the ground floor was built. As a stonemason and hydraulic engineer, Ceroni also supervised works in the garden related to the water devices in the grotto. In order to elevate the stately character of the Palace interiors, another attempt was made to have a new staircase constructed; this was designed respectively by the architect Andrzej J. Jeziernicki (1701-5)  and a laureate of the Academy of Saint Luke Benedykt de Renard (1720-21). Neither were those built. Around that time, out of large rooms on the ground floor, Carlo A. Bay isolated cosy residential apartments for Michał ‘Little Fish’ Radziwiłł. In subsequent years, 1727-28, the focus was on elevating the splendour of the garden. For the purpose, the architect Domenico Cioli was brought from Rome with de Renard’s support; he renovated the grotto, water devices, and the garden pavilions. The reconstructed process of the alterations conducted by illustrious architects in 1684-1735 illustrates the complicated matter that was the use of the Palace raised under the Vasas, and functioning in the era of strong tendencies to manifest sumptuosity, the latter reflected in stately courtyards, French gardens, and most importantly the gala sequence of interiors: the hallway, staircase, and the Grand Hall. The example of the Koniecpolski-Radziwiłł Palace perfectly illustrates the phenomenon typical of Warsaw when modernization of early-Baroque palace interiors was attempted in the 18^th century so that they could meet the requirements of sumptuosity. The actual problem consisted in the fact that on the one hand the perimeter walls were almost orthodoxically considered unalternable, while on the other hand efforts were made to bestow a grandiose look and scale upon vestibules, staircases, and Grand Halls. The conflicts between the needs to modernize and technical possibilities forced architects and decision-makers to adopt unusual solutions that were distant from the European schemes of the development of architecture, yet reflected a peculiar mental framework of the clients, as well as socio-economic mechanisms of the development of Warsaw palace architecture in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.