Pałac Adama Kazanowskiego i jego pierwotna forma w świetle badań architektonicznych

Tekst jest podsumowaniem wyników badań architektonicznych Pałacu Kazanowskich, jednej z największych rezydencji Warszawy w 1. połowy XVII w. Dzięki nim udało się ustalić pierwotną XVII-wieczną formę budowli. Rekonstrukcja planu pozwoliła na powiązanie pomieszczeń z fragmentami wierszowanego opisu z r. 1643, co umożliwiło poznanie wystroju i wyposażenia istotnych wnętrz pałacu. Zrekonstruowana forma pałacu pozwoliła także na rozważania na temat autorstwa projektu.

An attempt is made at summing up the results of the architectural research into the Kazanowski Palace, one of the largest Warsaw residences in the first half of the 17th century. Thanks to the research into the structure of the former Palace preserved in the walls of the later Convent of the Discalced Carmelites it has been possible to identify the genuine 17th-century form of an asymmetrical palace with the main body and two wings. This layout, as it turned out, substantially differed from the Palace’s reconstructions so-far existing in literature. The uncovering on the Palace’s walls also allowed an almost full reconstruction of the disposition of its rooms and elevation fragments, e.g., attics. As seen against Warsaw architecture of the period, the plan of the piano nobile seemed quite peculiar. It contained two tracts of reception rooms: one in the Palace’s main body, the other in the northern outbuilding. Both tracts began with sizeable dining rooms, and leading through subsequent antechambers (partially exerting additional functions of, e.g., a library), they led to the lord’s reception bedroom located at the point where the main body bordered on the outbuilding. All this seems to be in line with court protocol which Adam Kazanowski, Marshal of the Court of the Crown, must have been well acquainted with. Next to the master’s apartment there was an apartment of his spouse, the two interconnected by a chapel. The reconstruction of the layout also allowed to associate respective rooms with fragments of a rhymed description of the building which Adam Jarzębski contained in his Gościniec [Guide to Warsaw]  from 1643, this helping to reconstruct the décor and furnishing of all the important Palace’s rooms, Moreover, the reconstructed 17th-century shape of the Palace allowed to undertake considerations related to the residence’s designer. It is known from the sources that while the Palace was being built, fee was paid to the architect and stonemason Constantino Tencalli, yet design solutions suggest that Giovanni Battista Gisleni may have participated in the designing process.