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ROGALIN

Rogalin is situated on the right bank of the Warta in the Mosina administrative district of Poznań County some 20 km south of Poznań.

First recorded in 1247 (as an endowment from Poznań Cathedral) it was a knightly manor from the end of the 13th C. Krzysztof Arciszewski, Admiral of the Dutch Fleet, General of the Royal Artillery under King Władysław IV and organiser of the Polish fleet, was born here in 1592. The Rogalin estate changed hands many times during the 17th century and the 1st half of the 18th. It was purchased by Kazimierz Raczyński, the future general governor of Wielkopolska, in 1768.

It was he who built the baroque entre cour et jardin palace complex with a palace in the central part, a cour d’honneur in front of it and side annexes. His name is not known in architectural circles. The manor was erected in 1768-1776. The quarter-cylindrical galleries joining the annexes to the palace were added later. A regular French garden complex was laid at the rear of the palace. Part of the park was converted into a landscape park and extended to embrace the neighbouring Warta wetlands with their famous Rogalin oaks in the 19th century. These now form part of the Rogalin Landscape Park.

The palace was erected on a rectangular plan. The centre part of the front elevation, which dominates the entirety, is crowned with a triangular pediment bearing the Raczyński (Nałęcz) coat of arms and the garden elevation has a semi-circular protruding terrace. The building has two storeys from the front and three from the garden side owing to the slope of the terrain. The entrance to the sala terrena on the ground floor is shaped like a sea grotto. The entire body is dominated by a cupolaed garret, the central part of which is crowned with a sculpture bearing the initials “KR” (from the founder Kazimierz Raczyński).

The ground interior had private quarters and guestrooms while the top floor was mainly used for entertaining. A two-storey ballroom, accompanied by side salons, occupied the central part. The great dining hall was situated in the western corner of this level. The owners’ private apartments were in the eastern projection. The interior décor and the stucco and painting decorations were most likely the work of Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer.

The Rogalin estate was inherited by Edward Raczyński, an eminent figure who devoted himself to serving Poznań and Wielkopolska. During his time, the ballroom was rearranged and converted into an arsenal, and several other works on the palace interior were carried out. A chapel and mausoleum, a copy of an ancient temple in Nimes, France, were also erected and the former palace chapel was converted into a library.
Following Edward Raczyński’s tragic death in 1845, the Rogalin estate passed to his son and then his nephew, Edward Roger, who created the Rogalin painting collection. Edward Raczyński (1891-1993), politician, Polish ambassador to London and, as of 1979, President of the Republic of Poland in Exile, was the last owner. He established the Rogalin trust to bequeath the entire Raczyński estate in Poland to the National Museum in Poznań.Read more