Palace

The palace in Krotoszyce is certainly a gem of this small, charming village.

Krotoszyce attracts history lovers and crowds of tourists due to the interesting geographic location and the geology of the entire Kaczawskie Foothills, which is also called the Land of Extinct Volcanoes.

The palace was built over the centuries and changed its style and appearance many times.

The building was built on a rectangular plan. It has a two-wing, brick structure, covered with a gable roof. The eastern wing has two floors with an attic, while the western wing has three floors. A very interesting, well-preserved historical element is the coat of arms of the von Thielau family from 1864, which is located on the heraldic cartouche above the present entrance to the palace. The manor farm buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries formerly belonged to the palace. They included numerous cowsheds, stables, barns and a coach house. Although the palace and park area has been destroyed over time, now both the palace and its surroundings are restored to their former glory by Przedsiębiorstwo Transportowo-Budowlane with headquarter in Złotoryja. Since 2010, the company has been running a three-star hotel "Pałac Krotoszyce" here, which serves as a conference and hotel complex with a restaurant and a SPA center.

The palace is situated in a picturesque, neo-romantic park, which was established during the modernization of the building carried out in 1894. Its magnificent area of over 6 hectares is a perfect place for walks, rest or active leisure among the nature. There is a pond in the park with a varied shoreline, reinforced with stones and planted with lime trees.

Certainly the park's greatest "treasure" is an over 350-year-old London plane tree with a circumference of 700 cm, which has been entered on the list of nature monuments. The tree is eye-catching with its impressive size, but also with its typical, characteristic bark, peeling in the form of shields.

In 2020, additional walking paths were created that run through almost the entire area of the park, among various tree species, including maples, chestnut trees, birches, oaks and lindens.

The history of the Palace in Krotoszyce is quite extensive and ambiguous.

Over the centuries, its owners have changed many times.

The village of Krotoszyce was founded in 1255 and this date is considered as the beginning of the existence of the estate on which the Palace is located. Initially, the owner was Bolesław II, the prince of Silesia, also known as the Lord of Krotoszyce. The next owners under the pledge law were the citizens of nearby Legnica: Nitsche and Peter Ungerothen.

They occupied the property for the next 34 years, and in 1433 it passed into the hands of the Carthusian monks.

In the second half of the 16th century, the ruling Lord of Krotoszyce was Peter Heinrich, those days also called as the Lord of the Legnica farm, and later also of Nowa Wieś Legnica.

The year 1600 is an important date for this place, because this year, according to sources, Hans Sebaldus Heinrich started the construction of the Palace in Krotoszyce or significantly rebuilt the existing residence. The building was to serve as a defensive castle surrounded by a moat.

Hans Sebaldus Heinrich also was of great importance for the history of Krotoszyce, due to the renovation of the church in Krotoszyce in 1626. 10 years later, in the second half of the 17th century, the palace had another owner, Florian Thilo von Thielau. He also became the master of Krotoszyce. He significantly rebuilt and enlarged the Palace, giving it a baroque character.

For the next 170 years, the property was managed by successive members of the von Thielau family. An interesting fact is that in 1787, Louise Christiane von Thielau became the first woman to rule Krotoszyce village and the palace estate. She probably came from the nearby village of Rzymówka. This is not the only influential woman at the time. In the first half of the 19th century, Henriette Engler became the mistress of Krotoszyce.

In the years 1881-1912, another Lord of Krotoszyce made an electric modernization of the palace and another reconstruction, as evidenced by the date above the entrance portal of the added staircase in the west wing.

After the Second World War, in the years 1945-1949, the Krotoszyce estate was administered by the Soviet army, and later ownership was taken over by the State Farm in Krotoszyce.

Only in 1990, the property passed into private hands.

The legend of the coat of arms von Thielau from "Schlesische Heimat" 1864 - a coat of arms, which was immortalized on the coat of arms cartouche above the present entrance to the palace.

"The ring and the magpie"

One day in the castle in Liegnitz in Silesia a very precious ring of the Duchess disappeared, which she kept in her room. Apart from the Duchess, only one noble boy had access to this room. He was responsible for serving the Duchess and was immediately suspected of having stolen the ring. He stubbornly denied and pointed out that he was of an old house and that he was therefore not to be trusted to do such a thing. All this was of no use, he was chased out of the castle with disgrace.

After many years the duke organized a great hunt. A knight observed a magpie that lied in the nest in a tall tree. He stepped closer, and as he did so he saw something blinking and glittering in the nest. He climbed the tall tree and found in the nest a ring which the Duchess recognized as hers and which she had missed so much. Now it became apparent that the former noble boy had been wrongly accused of theft. He, who in the meantime had grown into a man, was again called to the Duke's Liegnitz court and accepted again with grace. In order to redress the injustice, the duke gave him his castle in Kroitsch with the whole village. He said to him: "From now on, because you and your old knightly father are the last branches of a noble house, lead a tree trunk with two branches in the coat of arms. The thieving magpie with the ring in its beak should sit on the crowned knight's helmet. This should remind me that I have done you wrong ". There he lived in contentment and happiness for many years. The von Thielau family have had this coat of arms since those days and still use it today.

The palace will offer 12 high standard rooms, a restaurant with 30 seats, a café and a small conference room.

There will be also a mini-SPA and a wine-bar in the basement.

On warm days, there will be opened an open-air beer garden with a view to the pond and the historic park. Benches by the pond will encourage to rest.

The entrance to the palace will be adorned with a beautiful fountain. The historic park will delight you with trees, and its English style will make the walks pleasant.