SIERNIKI
Sierniki is a village in Rogoźno commune, Oborniki district, ca. 10 km south-east of Rogoźno.
The first mentions of Sierniki date to 14th century, the village’s earliest owners being the Siernickis who lived there into 16th century. The estate’s proprietorship changed several times throughout 17th c. and up to 3rd quarter of 18th century. In the late 18th c., the property was bestowed to Katarzyna Radolińska, nee Raczyńska, who in 1786–1788 erected a new classicist residence in lieu of a former wooden baroque-styled manor.
After Katarzyna died in 1792, Sierniki was inherited by her daughter Wirydianna (nee Radolińska) Kwilecka by her first marriage and Fiszerowa by her second (to General Fiszer). Wirydianna wrote memories where, beside an extremely interesting picture of her age, mentions on the palace can be found. The property was sold to Władysław Szułdrzyński in 1849; Sierniki was to remain in the Szułdrzyński family’s hands till 1939.
Katarzyna Radolińska entrusted the delivery of a new residence’s design to the excellent Warsaw architect Jan-Chrystian Kamsetzer. The construction works were carried out by Antoni Höhne, an architect, the stony details of the architectural and sculptural decoration being made by Jan Schöps of Poznań.
The Sierniki palace is recognised as the most outstanding specimen of residential architecture in Wielkopolska. The work of an illustrious architect has influenced a number of the region’s palace or manorial buildings, constructed in a later period.
The arrangement’s composition is quite traditional: an access lane was set up along the axis leading the incomers down to the honorary yard in front of the palace, enclosed along its sides by two identically shaped backhouses. The central site is occupied by the palace which is situated on a small height, which made it look monumental, as seen from the access road. A landscape park was laid out behind the palace, turning in its further section into a forest park with a water channel marked out along the rear elevation axis.
The palace was erected as a classicist building with a dense two-storey cellared solid covered with a rather low-rise hip roof. It has been founded upon a rectangular projection with a grandiose portico in the front and a trilateral break in the rear elevation axis.
The central part of the front elevation has a monumental portico, preceded by broad stairs leading to a high ground floor. The portico’s four Ionic columns support a triangular pediment containing a rectangular white-marble board with an inscription reading: “SOBIE SWOIM PRZYJAŹNI CZASOWI” [‘FOR OURSELVES / OUR RELATIVES & ACQUAINTANCES / FRIENDSHIP / AND TIME’].
The dominant of the rear (i.e. garden) elevation is a trilateral projection, preceded by bipolar stairs with a terrace.
It was through the portico and a portico recess that the palace’s main entrance was once set, leading to a small vestibule connected with a rotund room situated along the axis and occupying a two-storey space. Underneath it, in the high-vault cellars, a round room was designed, supported upon eight columns, once accessible through an entrance underneath the stairs, by the garden projection. The ground floor’s side sections were arranged into representative spaces, a dining room, salons and studies. There, two stairwells leading to the upper storey were situated.
The Sierniki palace architecture and its layout were repeated with a number of other residences of the period. The décor and decoration designs were probably also the work of Jan-Chrystian Kamsetzer; however, the work has never been completed as the founder died.
Changes to the palace’s interior were made by its following proprietors, but were destroyed to a considerable extent mostly in a recent period. Testifying to the earlier appearance and abundance of the furnishings are the surviving inventory lists, drawn up before the middle of 19th century, as the property was about to be sold. Only fragments of stuccowork and painting decoration have survived to date.
Today, the palace is a private property.