The Larisch Palace
From the building of the former Middle School we go back and we go along Szeroka street until we reach Tadeusza Regera street. What rises up before us is The Larisch Palace 6 Regera street, entrance from the Peace Park
The town seat of the Larisch Counts is one of the few buildings of that type in Cieszyn Silesia. It came into being thanks to Count Jan Józef Antoni Larisch von Mönnich who played different functions in the Duchy of Cieszyn and the Emperor’s court. In 1782 he became Cieszyn provincial Starosta, in 1789 national Marshal and president of Sejm Ziemski (provincial Parliament). At the Viennese Court, as a secret adviser, he bore the title of ‘His Excellency’ and played the function of imperial chamberlain. In order to secure a seat in the capital Cieszyn (where the offices run by him were situated) that would be adequate to his position, he decided to erect a town residence that would be correspondingly big.
The palace came into being after the big fire of Cieszyn in 1789. The Larisches had possessed, from the middle of the 18th century, a tax free nobleman’s house situated at the then Konwiktowa street and today’s Tadeusza Regera street, next to the Peace Park. However, that building turned out to be insufficient for the needs of the count’s family and in 1796 count Jan Larisch bought the neighbouring small town house. The combining of the two properties made it possible for count Larisch to create a premises that would be appropriate to his financial and social status. The main façade, with a broad front door in the middle, was situated on Konwiktowa street (today’s Tadeusza Regera street) and it received baroque and classicist decoration. The side façade, (the one from the side of the Peace Park) was rested against the remains of the defensive walls, which was emphasized by solid buttressing. The windows of two floors, separated by moulding, received eared listel surround. The palace created in such a way, in the shape of the letter ‘L’, was covered with a mansard shingled roof.
The elegant rooms on the second floor received a gorgeous framework. They were embellished, for the most part, with classicist polychromy. A so-called ‘Chinese study’ with oriental themes that were fashionable at the time as well as ‘The Egyptian Ballroom’ with a high vault distinguished themselves among them. The painted embellishment of the latter represents landscapes with themes of ancient architecture framed in Egyptian columns. On one of the paintings with a landscape the creator of the frescoes, ‘an academic painter’ Józef Mayer, put down the date of their completion: ‘1796’. A set of classicist and eclectic stoves, placed in semispherical niches, is a true embellishment of the ‘piano nobile’ seven rooms. From the north a small garden in the French style with an octagonal pavilion adhered to the palace. Today it is The Peace Park. It was during the Napoleonic wars that the palace thrived. In 1805, after the shattering defeat of the Austrian army in the war with Napoleon, Cieszyn was the temporary capital of the monarchy for quite a long time. The Emperor’s Court, the central offices and embassies moved to Cieszyn even before the capture of Vienna (on November 13th) by Bonaparte. It was also there that the news about the defeat in the battle of Austerlitz (December 2nd) reached everybody. A lot of personages went through Cieszyn during that hot period. It was as early as in December that the Emperor Franz I entertained his allies: Czar Alexander I, Grand Duke Constantine, Marshal Kutuzow and Duke Biron Kurlandzki. Then in the ‘Egyptian Room’ performances and balls were given for the guests of rank, and in the privacy of the palace drawing-rooms important political conversations were carried on. After the signing of the treaties in Preszburg (Bratislava) on December 27th, the court returned to Vienna.
In 1809 Duke Albert of Saxe- Teschen and then his successor Archduke Charles Habsburg chose the palace for their seat. In 1817, on the other hand, Emperor Franz I with his wife Karoline Auguste and the whole court stopped there on their way from Opava to Kraków. They were greeted with due ceremony by representatives of the gentry. In 1831 the Larisches sold their Cieszyn palace to count Filip Ludwik Saint-Genois d’Anneaucourt. As a consequence of his actions the third wing of the palace was built (around 1839), and thus the shape of the letter ‘U’ was given. Józef Kornhäusel, a wellknown and popular Viennese architect of late classicism who was working for the Cieszyn Habsburgs at the time, designed it. In that wing he placed a stable on a circular foundation which was rare and unconventional. Above the stable, on the second floor, another ball room was situated, called ‘The Roman Room’ because of its painted decorations, rich with antique themes.
In 1840 a Cieszyn lawyer, dr Antoni Demel bought the palace and after that it started to be called ‘The Demel town-house’. Two Mayors of the town, namely, Jan and Leonard Demel von Elswehr lived there. Sold to the town by the Demels in 1918 and restored, the Larisch palace became, from 1931, the site of the Cieszyn Town Museum. The Cieszyn institution comprised the following: the oldest (in this part of Europe) public museum, founded in 1802 by rev. Leopold Jan Szersznik with his library collection, the Silesian Ethnographic Musem (founded in 1903 by the Polish Ethnographic Association in Cieszyn), the townspeople’s Town Museum, as well as numerous private collections. In 1942 the palace suffered great loss when a fire broke out in ‘The Roman Room’. The entire roof was burnt then and the elegant interiors of the second floor were damaged.
The condition of the palace building, deteriorating from year to year, was the reason for closing, in 1983, the museum exhibitions. At that time a period of overhaul that lasted for many years started and through which the Larisch palace was adjusted to modern museum standards. The restoration of the building was completed in 2002. At present the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, called ‘At the border of histories and cultures’, presents monuments connected with the Cieszyn Piast and Habsburg dynasties, exhibits illustrating the culture of Cieszyn gentry, townspeople’s culture and folk culture, and also precious collections of art and craft. Part of the exhibition of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia is devoted to the role and importance of the representatives of the Habsburg and Habsburg- Lorraine dynasties who sat on the throne of the Cieszyn Dukes. We start our sightseeing with…
The Enlightenment Room
In a small corridor, on the left-hand side, there is a gallery of portraits of the Habsburgs who were, as Czech Kings, feudal owners of the Duchy of Cieszyn. At the beginning there are engravings portraying the following: the Roman king Ferdinand IV, Emperors: Ferdinand III, Leopold I, Joseph I, Charles VI and the relatives of Francis Stephen and Maria Theresa. Next there are oil paintings that used to embellish the Session Room of the Town Council in the Cieszyn Town Hall. They are of the Emperor Joseph II, Duke Albert of Saxe -Teschen, Emperor Leopold II, Archduke Charles and Archduke Albert. The Habsburgs gallery is completed with two portraits of the Emperor Franz Joseph I.
On the right hand side of the corridor there are keepsakes connected with the signing of the so-called Cieszyn Peace Treaty that ended the War of Succession (also known as ‘the potato war’) between Austria and Prussia. The terms were signed on May 13th 1779, after a peace conference that lasted for a few weeks. Envoys from the seven European countries that were involved in the war arrived at the Cieszyn conference. Their portraits, painted by the Austrian painter Jan Daniel Donat, and other keepsakes, mainly printed documents and medals have been preserved. Past the corridor, on the right hand side, there is an Empire bureau called ‘The Eaglet’s desk’. It was made in Vienna by Benedict Moll for Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt – ‘The Eaglet’ (Napoleon I Bonaparte and Marie Louise’s son). That piece of furniture, from the Emperor’s collection, was bought at an auction in Vienna after World War I by Brunon Konczakowski, a well-known Cieszyn collector. We pass on to
‘The Egyptian Room’
called this because of the Egyptian theme, which was popular at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and which is presented on the frescoes that decorate its walls. Among them there are lotus columns, sphinxes and hieroglyphic themes. In the corners of the room there are stoves with ancient themes topped with the sculptures of Athena and Diana. That room constituted the centre of social life during the stay of the Emperor’s Court in Cieszyn in 1805 and 1806. Past ‘the Egyptian Room’ there are two rooms devoted to the material culture of Cieszyn gentry and Cieszyn Dukes from the Habsburg dynasty.
The Room of the Nobility (I)
From the very beginning of the existence of the Duchy of Cieszyn until the middle of the 19th century the nobility, originating from the former knighthood, constituted the most influential social stratum, first connected with the Piast dynasty, and later with the Habsburg dynasty. Because of their privileged position and the property they possessed, the gentry were, for a few centuries, the political, economic and cultural élite, thus leaving their permanent trace in the history of Cieszyn Silesia. For many centuries the nobility played the function of creating culture. It was through the nobility that the latest trends in art, literature, music, etc. reached the furthest corners of Cieszyn Silesia. The material sphere of the life of the nobility, concentrating mainly in their country seats and town palaces, was an important manifestation of their customs. It is represented mainly in portraits, whose function was, apart from capturing the likeness, to show the sequence of the successive generations and the preservation of attachment to tradition and family bonds. Galleries of ancestors were to be found in almost every noble residence, thus contributing to the consolidation of the nobility. In this room one can see fragments of two of such family galleries, namely the Bludowski barons from Dolne Błędowice and Orłowa and the Mattencloit barons from Zebrzydowice. Among those whose portraits were painted are also their close and more distant relatives. Apart from family portraits there are also pictures of Count Adam Paczyński-Tenczyński and of Baron Karol Cselesta, the founders of charity foundations for children of noble birth in Cieszyn. Their figures remind us of the philanthropic activity, common among the gentry, in the times when an organized social care did not yet exist. 18th century furniture and products of artistic craft complement the furnishings of the room.
The Room of the Nobility (II)
In this room the attributes of the nobility are presented: coats of arms and seals, objects connected with the high functions played by them at the Emperor’s Court (e.g. ladies-in-waiting, and imperial chamberlains). What was indissolubly connected with the nobility were their family seats, views of which are shown in old photographs and water-colours. Dukes were feudal lords of the nobility and part of the exhibition has been devoted to them. The portraits of the following found their place here: Marie Christine and Albert of Saxe-Teschen, who were known for numerous economic enterprises in Cieszyn Silesia and also as the founders of the ‘Albertina’, i.e. a very large collection of graphic art and drawings in Vienna. Next there are portraits of Archduke Charles – the founder of the Hunting Palace in Cieszyn, Archduke Albert - the originator of the local manufacturing industry, and the last Cieszyn Duke Friedrich Habsburg, the commander-inchief of the Austrian army in World War I. The Emperor’s throne from the Evangelical Church of Jesus reminds us of the Emperor Franz Joseph I’s visits to Cieszyn in 1854, 1880, 1890, and 1906. After leaving the museum exhibition we go down to the yard where there is a
Former Palace Stable
The classicist stable is the most original room in the ‘Larisch Palace’. It was designed by a Viennese, Józef Kornhäusel, who was supported by the masterbuilder Franciszek Schneider. Erected on the plan of a circle 7.20 m in diameter, it reaches the height of the second floor (7.18 m high). It was covered with a domed vault with lunettes resting on a stone Tuscan column (almost 5 m high) placed in the centre. In the walls, in semicircular niches arranged rhythmically, sixteen stalls for horses with marble mangers were arranged. Until today only two have survived. The stable was lit by 10 skylights that were situated in the niches above the moulding. The entrance to the stable, with a symmetrical classicist façade, was from the side of the palace yard. The stable was connected with the count’s suites by means of a separate staircase and a window on the first floor, embellished with a grating, from which one could observe the horses and the work of the stable-boys. In the stable there is a stylish ‘Café Museum’. The classicist architecture of the interior has been emphasized by copies of antique sculptures representing two Muses, the busts of Antoni von Schmerling, an Austrian Prime- Minister, and Archduke Albert Habsburg - by Jan Raszka. A castiron stove, cast in the Archdukal ironworks in Frydland, used to ensure the heating of the stable. In this former palace stable of unblemished classical proportions one can spend time in a pleasant way today by treating oneself to delicacies of the Viennese cuisine, such as, for example, Sacher layer cake, apple strudel or Emperor’s pancakes with elder filling.
Photographs: Dominik Dubiel, Paweł Halama, Daniel Hryciuk, Magdalena Jańczuk, Renata Karpińska, Mariusz Makowski, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Anna Szostok-Fedrizzi, Henryk Tesarczyk
Translation from Polish: Lucyna Krzanowska and John Whitewood
Reproductions of exhibits, documents and photographs from the collections of:
- Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn,
- Cieszyn Historical Library,
- Cieszyn Branch of the State Archive in Katowice,
- Cieszyn Town Council,
- Museum of Beskidy in Frýdek-Mistek,
- private collection of Mariusz Makowski
- H. Wawreczka, J. Spyra, M. Makowski, ‘Cieszyn i Czeski Cieszyn na starych widokówkach i fotografiach’, WART, Nebory 1999