Antonin Palace

The Radziwiłł princes' hunting palace in Antonin is a hunting lodge built between 1822 and 1824 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for Prince Antoni Radziwiłł.

The palace is timber-built, weatherboarded, on a stone foundation, and constructed on a Greek-cross plan — an octagonal main body to which four lower wings were added. The façade is painted in the so-called imperial yellow (German: Kaisergelb). The entire interior of the main body is occupied by a great three-storey hall with a decorated ceiling, supported by a pillar containing the fireplace flues, and adorned with hunting trophies. Concerts used to be held there. One of the wings contains a staircase leading to internal balconies, which lead to the living rooms in the other three wings.

Frédéric Chopin was a guest of Antoni Radziwiłł at Antonin (twice, in 1827 and 1829). A plaque on the palace façade commemorates these visits, and a monument to the composer stands at the entrance to the palace grounds. Between 1939 and 1944 the palace belonged to Adolf Hitler, having been given to him in 1939 by its then owner, Prince Michał Radziwiłł.

After the end of the Second World War it stood abandoned until 1974. It was renovated between 1975 and 1978 through the efforts of Jerzy Waldorff, and is now a hotel and restaurant. It was awarded the Europa Nostra prize in 1994.

Around it lies an extensive English-style park with a pond and monumental trees. In the middle of the pond, on a small island, stands a tombstone of white marble for the daughters of Antoni Radziwiłł, Fryderyka Helena and Luiza. Nearby are also historic buildings in the Tyrolean style.

It is a venue for concerts of the international festival "Chopin in the Colours of Autumn".

Machine-translated from “Pałac w Antoninie” on the Polish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Antonin Palace ranks #5,346 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #194 of the 386 mapped in Poland. Founded c. 1900 — one of 655 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,302 times in the last 60 days, more than 56% of the atlas. The nearest day-trip guide is Opole, 95 km away. See how Poland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Polish) ↗