GĘBICE
Gębice is a village situated in Pępowo Commune (gmina), the district (powiat) of Gostyń, ca. 20 km south of Gostyń.
Construction of a new classical-style residence was initiated by Hieronim Gorzeński of the coat-of-arms Nałęcz, who had come into the property’s possession through his marriage with Antonina nee Bojanowska.
In 1883, the Gębice property, adjacent to Chociszewice, was bought out for 510 marks by Maria Mycielska, daughter of Teodor and Aniela nee Mielżyńska, the owners of Chociszewice – an estate that had been sold by then. In Maria’s time, a neo-renaissance wing was added to the palace, featuring a low tower with a viewing terrace. Gębice has remained in the hands of the Mycielskis of the coat-of-arms Dołęga until 1939.
Despite its having been redeveloped, the palace, built ca. 1825 for the Gorzeński family, stands out as an excellent specimen of classical architecture, with its perfectly proportioned two-storey solid covered by a low hip roof. The palace was founded on a rectangular projection, with a trilateral break in the rear elevation axis, two shallow side breaks and an impressive portico in the front. Its plaster-covered elevations, arranged in a regular fashion into rectangular windows within architectural borderings, have been decorated with rustications; the ground-floor and upper-level storeys are separated with a strip of smooth cordon frieze, framed with profiled elements. The most highlighted compositional feature of the front façade is focused in its central section that is preceded with a magnificent four-column portico with a triangular pediment. In the pediment’s field as well as in its crowning, a bas-relieved decoration is placed displaying the estate proprietors’ coats-of-arms: the Nałęcz by Gorzeński and the Junosza by Bojanowski.
The landscape park arrangement was laid out in parallel with commencement of the palace construction works; while creating the park area, what remained from a former local garden was made use of and virtually incorporated into a new picturesque composition with two ponds, a brook and unrestrainedly meandering lanes set around carefully composed clusters of greenery. A cross-featuring obelisk commemorating Ludwik Mycielski, who was killed during the January Insurrection in 1863, is surviving in the park.
