Palace in Pogrzebień

The palace in Pogrzebień stands in the Kornowac municipality, in Racibórz County. It is a Neo-Renaissance residence in the Italian villa style, associated with several families of Silesian nobility and industrialists. It is entered in the heritage register, and the register dating covers the years 1885-1887.

History of the palace

It was originally a single-storey building from 1858. The first owners were the Larisch family, and their daughter Luiza married the poet Joseph von Eichendorff in 1815. In 1882-1915 the estate belonged to the Baildon family, from which Artur von Baildon bought it for his only son. The next owners were the Voigt family, and in 1928 the property was sold to the parcelling company "Ślązak".

In 1930-1939 the Salesian Minor Seminary operated here. During the Second World War transit camps were set up in the palace, first for German re-emigrants from Bessarabia and Bukovina, later for the Polish population, and finally a camp for children. Since 1946 the site has belonged to the Salesian Sisters.

What it looks like

The palace owes its present shape to the rebuilding of 1885-1886: an upper floor was added then and the building was given Neo-Renaissance features. The interiors are decorated with a marble staircase leading to the upper floor. The building is of brick. Next to it grows an old ash tree, the thickest and oldest tree in the municipality, with a trunk circumference of over five metres.

Practical information

• Address: Brzezka 9, Pogrzebień.
• The building is an active convent, so visits to the interiors are not planned. The palace is viewed from the outside, and it is worth asking the sisters in advance about the possibility of entering.
• Nearby, less than a kilometre from the palace, stands the observation tower in Pogrzebień, and Racibórz with its castle lies about six kilometres away.