The residence in Nieborów has a Baroque spatial composition, developed in the 18th century. The final character of the establishment was shaped in the 19th century and during the revalorisation works carried out after World War II.
Some highlights about Sentimental Park in Nieborów (Poland)
Registered historic monuments; Memorial of History (pomnik historii)
99-416 Nieborów, Poland
Coordinates: 52.06658, 20.07020
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Palace Garden in Nieborów:
Palace Garden in Nieborów and Sentimental Garden in Arkadia (joint ticket):
Web: nieborow.art.pl
Email: mantczak@mnw.art.pl
Phone: +48 46 838 56 35
The palace-garden complex in Nieborów and the sentimental garden in Arkadia are the best-preserved examples in Poland of old rural magnate residences.
Its unique and perfectly preserved elements are the gardens, diversified in form and vegetation, originating from different periods, which together with the residential and farm buildings and landscape architecture create an architectural and garden layout of outstanding compositional, landscape, natural, architectural and artistic value. The most outstanding planners, architects, painters as well as builders and craftsmen worked on the construction and extension of the mansion, among them Szymon Bogumił Zug, Enrico Ittar, Pierre Norblin and many others.
The garden at Nieborów has a clear spatial layout with characteristic elements of a Baroque garden structure preserved, with a broad avenue emphasising the main axis of the establishment and ornamental parterres, secret gardens, bosquets, and shaped hedgerows. Successive stages of the development of the layout have been preserved – starting from the end of the 17th century, through the development of the 18th century, transformations of the 19th century and the inter-war period, to the post-war reconstruction works.
The residence in Nieborów has a Baroque spatial composition, developed in the 18th century. The final character of the establishment was shaped in the 19th century and during the revalorisation works carried out after World War II.
It is an axial residential complex, the central element of which is a Baroque palace with the main entrance in the northern elevation and an exit to the garden on the southern side. The palace was built in the years 1690-96 according to the design of Tylman of Gameren for Primate Michał Stefan Radziejowski, on the site of the former Nieborowski manor. It is a brick, two-storey building with a mansard tile roof. The alcove towers located on both sides of the main body are decorated with sheet metal cupolas with dormers, topped with spires. In front of the entrance to the palace there is a raised driveway, framed on the sides by walls finished with stone statues of lions from the early 18th century.
The interiors and the body of the palace have been the subject of many reconstructions and additions, carried out by successive owners of the estate. Nevertheless, its main features have been preserved and its general profile remains an example of assimilation of north-western European Baroque architecture on Polish soil, which is expressed by the combination of the light body of the building maintained in the spirit of classicising Palladianism with alcove towers typical of the Polish Renaissance and Baroque.
The cour d'honneur and the avant-cour are flanked by the majolica factory and the former palace outbuildings on the one side and more outbuildings on the other. A magnificent entrance gate with a guardroom leads to the premises. Along the main compositional axis there is a garden. The regular garden directly adjoining the palace from its southern side passes freely into the open landscape – cultivated fields with meadows called the Nieborowski Field ending with a wall of forest. An informal (landscape) area adjoins its western border, while the section located on the eastern side is occupied by potager gardens and orchards.
Within the oldest part of the garden is a notable potager garden, transformed in the second half of the 19th century into the so-called French garden. The regular garden consists of two sections connected by compositional axes – the older internal garden dating from the end of the 17th century, probably designed by Tylman of Gameren, and the external garden surrounding it on three sides, dating from the second half of the 18th century and designed by Szymon Bogumił Zug.
The core and main compositional axis of the layout is a single green avenue (with turf in the middle) leading from the palace towards the south, ending with an aha, behind which there are fields and a forest wall. Immediately adjacent to the palace are ornamental parterres which, as one moves away from the palace, pass into bosquets decorated with secret gardens, flanked by berceaux with circular arbours at the corners, and into open bosquets. The former game preserve located in the western part of the complex was transformed in the 18th century into an informal (landscape) garden with an extensive water system. The regular section and the landscape section are separated by an "L" shaped channel.
The flora of the Nieborów garden remains extremely rich. Among more than 5,000 tree specimens there are 81 species with a dominant share of native trees such as linden, hornbeam, oak, pine, ash, birch, alder and willow. Over 145 trees are more than 120 years old. The tree stand includes a magnificent, age-old linden avenue, and two plane trees growing next to the palace, probably planted by Michał Kazimierz Ogiński in 1770, stand out from the solitary trees. The hornbeam and linden rows are also extremely valuable, especially within the oldest part of the regular garden.
The palace section is decorated with symmetrically shaped compartiment parterres, which are patterned in part by boxwood plantings and in part by annuals and lawn, additionally decorated with houseplants. The orangery collection – orange trees, laurel trees and other orangery plants – is presented in the historic orangery building. During the summer, some plants are placed in the gardens. In the eastern part of the regular garden is an amphitheatre, the backdrop of which, in the form of secret gardens surrounded by rows of hornbeams, is also the entrance to the French Garden.
This garden displays ancient methods of growing plants, especially various forms of fruit trees, forgotten vegetable species, herbs, and vines. In the area of the palace-garden complex, apart from the palace, the following historical buildings have been preserved: the palace outbuilding, the majolica manufactory, official houses, orangeries, the gardener's house with an icehouse, stables and coach house, and a granary on the grange.
Among the buildings of the Nieborów complex, two orangeries are closely related to the shape of the garden surrounding the palace. The Old Orangery was built before 1790 to a design by Sz. B. Zug. In December 1981 there was a fire, after which the Old Orangery was partially rebuilt. It is a classical, two-part building, containing a greenhouse and a nursery, erected on the plan of an elongated rectangle, covered with shingles. The body is decorated from the south by a Tuscan colonnade filled with large windows and a wooden frieze and architrave of massive wooden beams. The orangery currently houses a collection of native and exotic orangery plants. The Old Orangery was built around 1795 to a design by Sz. B. Zug.
The building is probably a preserved fragment of the large orangery built specifically to house the collection of 300 citrus trees purchased by M. H. Radziwiłł in Dresden. When the greater part of the collection was sold in 1868, the building was demolished, retaining only the easternmost portion, which was converted into a storehouse, the so-called Lamus. In 1948-51 the building underwent reconstruction works under the direction of Professor G. Ciołek. The brick classicist building, erected on a rectangular plan, is covered with a hipped roof with shingles.
The garden contains many decorative elements, among which stand out stone sculptures, vases, antique sarcophagi and tombstones, "stone babas" from the 9th-10th centuries, and many fragments of various architectural objects, mostly Roman, transferred from Arkadia to Nieborów in the mid-19th century.
The palace and garden complex in Nieborów and the sentimental garden in Arkadia are relatively well recognised objects. Over the years, much research work and numerous studies have been carried out here, and many publications and papers have been written about the layout and its elements.
Extremely important for the deepening of knowledge about the gardens was the research work of Maria Soborska and Professor Gerard Ciołek, and Museum curators Jan Wegner and Włodzimierz Piwkowski. The Museum organises academic conferences and thematic meetings and publishes its own publications. In addition to the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions, the Museum currently holds about 200 educational events per year, attended by an average of 3,500 people. The permanent educational offer of the Museum in Nieborów and Arkadia includes: 11 thematic paths for preschoolers, about 30 for primary school pupils and 13 educational classes for secondary schools.
There is a great deal of interest in ecology and horticulture classes tailored to the age group, such as: Secrets of Princess Helena's Garden, Unusual Properties of Ordinary Plants, A Fascinating Journey into the World of Trees, The Landed Property – A Family Multi-branch Enterprise, The Work of the Gardener – A Gardener's Guide from Years Past. In addition to the lessons, the schedule of events includes the Night of Museums in May and the European Heritage Days in September, as well as the open-air opera performances held every September.
Apart from the permanent educational offer, the Museum organises occasional cultural and educational events accompanying important museum events, such as the 70th anniversary of the Museum or exhibitions and events dedicated to the history of the former owners of the estate (e.g. 200th anniversary of Helena Radziwiłłowa's death commemorated by naming a new rose species after her), to the creators of the present day Museum (e.g. "The Garden as a complex organism. On the works carried out in the Nieborów Garden by Prof. Gerard Ciołek and his team") as well as the achievements and fate of Nieborów's gardeners (e.g.: the event accompanying the publication of "The Gardener's Report by Józef Borecki" as part of the Museum's series of popular science books.
The palace and garden complex in Nieborów and the former summer residence of the Radziwiłłs in Arkadia are under legal conservation protection by being entered in the register of monuments.
By virtue of the decree of the President of the Republic of Poland, the "Nieborów and Arkadia – palace- garden complex and sentimental-romantic garden" was also declared a Monument of History (Decree of the President of the Republic of Poland of 22.11.2017; Journal of Laws of 2017, item 2274).