KONARZEWO
Konarzewo (Poznań district [powiat], Commune [gmina] of Dopiewo) is situated ca. 18 km south-west of Poznań.
This extraordinarily splendid residence was probably erected by Andrzej Radomicki, Castellan of Gniezno, Voivode of Kalisz and subsequently, Poznań, married to Franciszka nee Czarnkowska of the coat-of-arms Nałęcz. The palace is no doubt one of the most valuable and interesting residences dating to 17th century that have preserved their relatively unchanged form till our time.
The construction of the palace was certainly commenced before 1690, with some of the works extending until the last years of the century (or even, the first years of 18th c., as was the case with interior ornamenting). The first stage included construction of a two-storied edifice founded on a rectangular projection, with vaulted cellars, possibly crowned with a tall hip roof. A vast courtyard appeared before it at the front; a regular Italian garden was set up in the rear section.
The architectural concept of the by-then-nearly-completed building was altered in 1699. In the central section of the rear, garden elevation, appended was an elongated projection with an adjacent staircase annex to the west. This caused that the building’s by-then-rectangular plane was changed into a T-shaped form. This change was most probably caused by the owner’s will to expand the interior and arrange within it a spacious vestibule and a grand room on the upper storey.
This redevelopment project made the residence a completely baroque entity.
The interior’s stuccowork decoration has been partly preserved; to a large extent, polychromes ornamenting the ceilings have also survives, underneath later-date repaint layers; they were discovered during a conservation work in the former half of the 1990s. The former ground-floor dining room, covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, features a painted scene of St. Anthony the Eremite’s visit to St. Paul, with a raven floating above those two characters, carrying a double portion of bread. The salon, in turn, offers a mythological scene featuring Apollo’s musical contest against Marsyas. The polychrome adorning the ceiling of the corner room adjacent to the salon shows a young kneeling woman, to whom a demon with bat’s wings, a dog’s head and sparrow-hawk claws is being revealed, emerging out of clouds of smoke; probably, the scene of temptation of St. Teresa of Avila.
Stuccowork and polychromes are also preserved in two interior sections on the palace’s upper floor. The salon located in the eastern part of the front tract features elliptic panels with painted personifications of the four cardinal virtues: Fortitude, Justice, Temperance and Prudence. Originally, there was a polychrome filling in the central, primary field in the ceiling, yet to read it is no more feasible today.
Polychromes have also survived in a small vaulted interior in the palace’s upper-floor south-western angle. In its central field featured is a chariot with Jupiter and Venus inside, drawn by flying pigeons; the side fields offer representations of Mars, Helios, Saturn and Mercury.
Today, the palace is home to Animpex Wielkopolska, a limited-liability company.