The newlyweds are depicted in reliefs that adorn the fireplace in the main salon
Drawing: Konrad Wieniawa-Narkiewicz
The Palace at Naklo, designed by the Enlightenment-era economist and architect Jan Ferdynand Nax (1736-1810), and completed in 1780, was built as a residence for Kayetan Bystrzonowski and his new bride Marcyanna Młodzianowska. The original estate was on a vast swath of land that had been deeded to the groom as a dowry from his future wife years earlier, in 1764.
The Bystrzonowski newlyweds were to enjoy the Palace together for only a short time, however, as the bride tragically died four years after the couple passed over the threshold on their wedding day.
After Marcyanna’s death, ownership is recorded as changing in 1804 when Baron Józef Bysztronowski (relation to Kajetan unknown) assumed the deed to the estate. Whatever their relationship, both Jozef and Kayetan Bystrzonowski obtained the hereditary title of Count of Galicia from Prussian Emperor Franz II in 1801.
The Palace was built during the reign of Stanisław II August Poniatowski, the last King (1764–95) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The palace and estate had a number of successive owners beginning in the mid-19th century, when names such as Bukowski, Mohl and Komorowski show up on the ownership papers.
The Komorowski family retained the property until the end of World War II, when it was confiscated by Poland’s communist government, and vast tracts of the original estate were divided among local farmers. The Palace building itself eventually served as a farming school and later, beginning in 1955, as a state-run orphanage.
After the orphanage was shuttered in 1989, the estate was purchased at auction by a Komorowski descendant who secured the remaining 23 acres as well as the Palace, which had been heavily vandalized in the intervening years.
The current owners, Kehrt and Marzenna Reyher, bought the property in 2002 and in 2007 established The Naklo Foundation to support development of the estate as a hospitality complex.
A view of the palace in the 1970s, when it was a state-run orphanage
