Manor Architecture in Prince’s Prussia and in Warmia a Study of its Origin and Distinctive Features

Abstract

In the discussed area, e.i. the province of East Prussia whose borders were established before the conference of Versaille, there were more than 1000 buildings that had the features of manor architecture, 200 of them in Warmia. The number and the state of preservation of the existing buildings as well as the documentation of the lost objects make it possible to undertake general and comparative studies that could introduce the problems of manor architecture to the public again. At present it is even more important because of the serious troubles connected with protecting this category of historical buildings.

Architecture, independent of its own meaning, is an excellent, very well understood even today, illustration of settlement and civilisation processes. In the former Prussian areas it is a testimony about their multi-ethnical and multi-cultural character; it also reveals the moments in history when they participated in the transformation of European art. This is one of the motifs undertaken in the study. The author discusses selected groups of buildings and particular residences, from the earliest ones belonging to the period of late Renaissance, to works from the borderland of the baroque and classical styles. In many cases the categories of style prove to be useless for evaluating this architecture.

Among the oldest buildings only the body of the Renaissance manor of the zu Eulenburg family in Galiny near Bartoszyce built in the 80-ties of the 16th century (re-built in the 18th century) has been preserved. The peripheral walls of the mannerist palace of the zu Dohna family in Słobity built in the years 1622-24 were used during the extension of the residence at the break of the 17th century. The von Rauters’ late-Renaissance manor in Wilkowo Wielkie near Kętrzyn built in the years 1596-1606, in whose place von Dönhoffs built a completely new monumental palace, is known from cataloguing drawings. Residences in Prussia at that time were fortified, according to an old custom. The buildings we know, built at the end of the 16th and in the first half of the 17th centuries, are completely isolated works with universal forms encountered in the architecture of Silesia (Galiny), north and south Germany (Wilkowo Wielkie), and even Denmark and the Netherlands (Słobity).

Evolution of the manor architecture in Prussian lands from the second half of the 17th century was going on under the influence of the Elector’s and then the King’s court in Berlin. In this way Ducal Prussia found its place among the contemporary creative transformations of art in this part of Europe. In the upper layer of the architecture of Ducal Prussia at the end of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm’s rule at first the ‘clear’ Dutch trend dominated, and then French influences proved decisive. From the valuable country residences of that period only Chancellor Johann von Kospoth’s one-story mansion in Licze near Kwidzyn (1664) has been preserved; it is the oldest preserved example of this kind of architecture. Also the mansions in Willkûhnen and Wundlacken near Königsberg are worth mentioning. The brick face that was characteristic of those buildings remained one of the significant means of aesthetic expression of Prussian noblemen’s abodes incessantly until the 20th century. Von Lehndorffs’ palace in Sztynort (designed before 1689, partially realized) and the Warmia bishops’ two residences in Lidzbark (at the castle and in the garden) have their closest analogies in the works of the excellent Dutchman Tylman of Gameren, working in Poland (died 1706). The bishops’ buildings, because of their novelty and originality of their composition and construction solutions may be numbered among the most interesting architectural projects of those times in the area of the Polish Republic.

Towards the end of the 17th century architects ever more courageously passed from following Dutch and French models to forming their own identity in architecture; a significant role was played here by the main architect of the Berlin court, Johann Arnold Nering (1659- 1695), who built the Charlottenburg palace. As the only one from the group of the most excellent Berlin architects he participated in transforming Königsberg from a declining provincial centre to the rank of the real co-capital of the state, as from 1701 it was the coronation city of the Prussian kings. Architects connected with the court designed the most important at that time buildings in Ducal Prussia. The design of the hunters’ palace Gross Holstein near Königsberg that was built as a suburb residence for Elector Friedrich III (1693- 1697) is attributed to Nering. Joachim Schultheis von Unfried (1678-1753) built the king’s palace as the eastern wing of the castle (1704-1713). Also Huguenots, Jean Baptiste Broebes (about 1670-1720) and Jean de Bodt (1670-1745), numbered among those who gave Berlin a new look, marked their presence. The former formulated the concept of extension of the Dohns palace in Słobity (1695). De Bodt designed the palace in Gładysze (built in 1701-1704) for the zu Dohns and the Friedrichstein palace (1709-1714) for the Dönhoffs. John von Collas (1678-1753) from Lorraine used the project of Friedrichstein for building another residence for the Dõnhoffs in Drogosze (the proper name of the Dönhoffstädt property, 1710-1714). Attention should be paid to the numerous works by the less known architect, Johann Caspar Hindersin (1677-1738) who worked for zu Dohn’s family in Markowo and Słobity before starting work for the state. It is still unknown who is the author of the most famous and also probably most outstanding Prussian residence – the Finckensteins-Dohns’ palace in Kamieniec Suski (1716-1720), well known for the fact that in 1807 the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Maria Walewska stayed there.

Soon after 1700 two basic models were formed of the Prussian country residence, compact and functional, adjusted to the severe climate and not yielding to unambiguous criteria of the style. The first one, on a regular two-way projection with a big entrance-hall and the living room on the axis, was reduced to a two-story form with slightly stressed middle two-sided break, covered with a mansard or hip-roof. The second model, on an analogous projection, was limited to a one-story building with a two-story break; the attic was always habitable. Mansions having such a form were usually distinguished by a high basement that had various household functions. They were still built at the beginning of the 19th century, also in Warmia. In the article special features are discussed of the occurring types of buildings and the most valuable ones are presented in detail. Always when there are close connections between the buildings and European architecture the author tries to show them