Source [translated]: https://karkonoszego.pl/artykul/palac-krolewski-w/1106594
One of the most famous monuments of Mysłakowice is the palace built in the 18th century.
The original one was built in the 17th century, and its present appearance was given at the end of the 18th century and thoroughly rebuilt in 1818 by the field marshal von Gneisenau according to the design of the architect Joseph Raabe. It was rebuilt again into a summer residence in the years 1842 – 44, according to the design of K.F. Schinkler, whose work was continued by his student A. Stüller due to his sudden death. The building acquired a neo-Gothic character, a tower, a one-story ballroom and interior design.
The palace is a three-wing building with three floors, the middle wing is partially two-story above the entrance, where the porch is located. The roofs are flat, hidden behind attics, referring to the battlement, which in turn are accentuated at the corners with octagonal towers. An attribute of the palace complex is a tall, octagonal tower, topped with a battlement. The richly decorated chimneys above the ballroom attract attention. The interior has retained decorative ceilings and a stone staircase.
In the vicinity of the palace there are farm buildings of the castle farm from the beginning of the 19th century, which have been partially rebuilt. They housed stables, barns and a brewery. In the park, established in 1833, stands the “Villa Liegnitz”, built in the early 19th century in Swiss style and rebuilt in 1959
(b. 1770 d. 1840)
In the years 1593 – 1759 the entire property was in the hands of von Reibnitz. The Prussian field marshal August von Gneisenau owned the estate, where he lived during his retirement. King Frederick William III of Prussia visited him several times when staying with his brother Prince Wilhelm at Fischbach (today Karpniki), also located in the Jelenia Góra Valley, where the prince had acquired a castle in 1822. After Gneisenau’s death King Frederick William III purchased Erdmannsdorf estate in 1831; the entire property was bought for 156,000 thalers. His intention was to build a summer residence on this site. The palace was rebuilt for the needs of the king. After his death in 1840, the palace passed into the hands of his second wife, Augustine von Harrach.
The monarch’s son, Frederick William IV, decided to buy his father’s property from his stepmother, for whom he built a smaller estate, Willa Liegnitz, which is located nearby in the park. King William decided to rebuild the palace in the neo-Gothic style.
The palace was owned by two Prussian kings and three German emperors. The guests of the palace were the monarchs of European countries. It was a special place that they visited, among others. artists, nobility and the intelligentsia of Germany. There are records that the palace also hosted Tsar Nicholas of Russia, King William II of the Netherlands, and Louis I of Bavaria.
Currently, the palace is inaccessible to tourists due to the primary school located in it.
The 13 hectare landscape park
From 1836 the Prussian Director of Gardens Peter Joseph Lenne with his students created one of the most beautiful landscape parks in Silesia.
Here’s how the park’s original design, which has been somewhat altered by time, was described in the 2010 article The Layout of the Landscape at Mysłakowice by Aleksandra Hoffmann-Marszałek:
One can distinguish three areas in the Mysłakowice Park: the decorative garden […] right by the palace, which was formed by flower beds, rare plants, bushes, and decorative trees; the proper palace park with a number of water bodies, enclosed from the north and south by large meadows; and the surrounding landscape of the Karkonosze Mountains. Lenné incorporated into his design views of faraway places, which blurred the boundaries between the manmade and natural landscape.
From the periodical ‘Technical Transactions: Architecture’, trans. MK
Source [translated]: https://karkonoszego.pl/artykul/krolewski-park-w-myslakowicach/1102723
The project of the Park in Mysłakowice was created in the years 1816-1822, at the request of the then owner of the Mysłakowice property, Count von Gneisenau. Initially, it was supposed to be a small landscape park in a typically English style. The composition was based on the visually attractive landscape of the Jelenia Góra Valley, hence its scenic arrangement.
After the death of Count von Gneisenau, Mysłakowice was bought by the Prussian King Frederick William III himself. Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Peter Joseph Lenné were employed at the royal court. Both were ordered to transform Mysłakowice into the pearl of the Jelenia Góra valley. Schinkel began designing works with the reconstruction of the palace. At that time, King William III also acquired the neighbouring villages of Karpniki and Wojanów. He planned to carry out comprehensive design works for all existing facilities there at the same time, thanks to which all the palace and park assumptions were to create a coherent composition.
In Mysłakowice, a small park stretched between the places intended for the expansion of the palace and the construction of a church. Both buildings were enriched with water reservoirs whose mirrors were to be visible. They are planned as naturalistic park ponds with islands and bays. It is the park’s water composition that is the key element of its composition. The plan of the park, dated back to 1816, made by Gerhard Koeber, shows the beginnings of dividing the area of the palace park into zones: garden with a fountain, park with ponds and landscape with viewpoints.
Work on composing gardens within the Crown Estate of the Hohenzollern family dates back to 1835-1838. However, the most important changes here took place in the years 1843-1845, when various elements of styles and eras were combined. In 1850, figures of halberdiers from Wrocław were brought to the park, and swans from Potsdam. On the northern shore of a large pond, called the island pond, there is probably the most characteristic element of the park’s infrastructure. A 6-metre-high gate made of the jaws of a Greenland whale. They were purchased by King Frederick William IV, for 45 thalers, from a certain Frau Hermann from Wrocław. The park remained part of the royal estate until 1909.
After parcelling, it lost such intricately cherished cohesion. By 1926, many elements of small architecture were removed and some were allocated to economic functions. From 1937, the palace and the park were taken over by the Jelenia Góra SA unit (Sturmabteilung).
In the 1980s, the gate from the jaws of the whale collapsed into the pond . While cleaning it, the jaws were found and removed, however they were broken and incomplete. Currently, a replica of them stands here and the original jaws are in the Municipal Cultural Centre.
Other
Poland’s Amazing Valley of Palaces & Gardens
Near the town of Jelenia Góra in Lower Silesia in Poland there’s a beautiful area called the Valley of Palaces and Gardens. Nestled among picturesque mountains, it contains over thirty outstanding palaces and castles, many of which are neighboured by impressive parks.
In the southwest fringes of Poland lies the town of Jelenia Góra, which is surrounded by such picturesque mountain ranges as the Karkonosze and the Izera Mountains. The local area is rich with historic architecture – in a relatively small space of 100 square kilometres around the town you can find over 30 outstanding palaces and castles. Some of them date back as far as the Middle Ages, though the area really gained its unique character in the 19th century when Jelenia Góra was part of Prussia. That’s when the Prussian royal Hohenzollern family turned the palace in Mysłakowice near Jelenia Góra into its summer residence.
The presence of the Hohenzollerns in the region began to attract German aristocrats who started to establish their own residences nearby. As a result, a number of local palaces were remodelled in various architectural styles and sizeable parks were created next to them.
This area] was famous for the artists linked to these landscape parks; the best garden architects in all of Europe worked on them. The same architects planned the layouts of parks in Potsdam and Berlin.
2020 Polish Radio broadcast ‘Dolina Pałaców i Ogrodów – Jedyne Takie Miejsce w Europie’, trans. MK
The parks were located so close to one another that they formed an almost interconnected system, creating an amazing area of gardens and palaces. Due to the turbulent 20th-century history of Europe, the Jelenia Góra region became part of Poland, and its residences were abandoned by their original owners. Nowadays the palaces serve various purposes; they’re used, for example, as hotels, schools, and conference centres. In 2012, 11 of the historic residencies from the Valley of Palaces and Gardens, along with their parks, were officially declared Monuments of History, or exceptionally valuable monuments. Below you can find descriptions of seven of these eleven sites that are particularly noteworthy.
Read more
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Source [translated]: https://rajzawplecaku.pl/myslakowice-czesc-ii/
Tyrolean threads in the history of Mysłakowice
The Jelenia Gora area became a refuge for several hundred Tyroleans who, as a result of an ultimatum received from the authorities, were forced to leave their homeland. In 1837, the people of Tyrol were given fourteen days to make a decision that was to determine their fate – either they would convert to Catholicism or, staying with the Protestant religion, leave Tirol. To everyone’s surprise, the Tyroleans opted for the second option and, saying goodbye to the valley of the Ziller River, they began their search for a new homeland.
The emigrants were helped by the Prussian king, Frederick William III, who agreed to the inhabitants of Tyrol to settle in the Jelenia Góra Valley. In addition, he commissioned the construction of a colony for new arrivals, giving 422 Protestant refugees some of his farmland in Mysłakowice (the name of the village at that time was Zillerthal – in memory of the lost Tyrolean homeland).
It is also worth mentioning that countess Friederike von Reden – the owner of the lands in Bukowiec – Bukowiec – an express journey in time and the initiator of bringing the Scandinavian Wang Temple to Karpacz i.e. the Wang Church – had a huge impact on the activities related to the settlement of the Tyrolean in these areas.
This post was made on the 15 August. In the Polish Catholic Church, it is a public holiday celebrating the Assumption of Mary. People take bouquets of flowers and herbs from their gardens to be blessed by the parish priest.
