The room above the “gray” salon served as the master’s bedroom. It had furnishings in the style of Louis XV and XVI, consisting of: two mahogany beds with bronzes and similar small cabinets and one large one, as well as a desk with a top covered with leather with embossed and gilded edges. Besides that, there was also a sofa, mahogany tables, armchairs, etc. On one of the walls hung a Turkish cloth from Vienna, on another a Buczacz cloth, resembling wide Słuck belts. Against the background of the Buczacz cloth was placed a bronze clock in the style of Louis XVI, and on both sides similar wall sconces. Also, other rooms on the second floor in both projection parts and adjacent to the hall had antique furniture, some richly inlaid or inlaid. In all, there were many bronzes, prints, and oil paintings. The best-equipped rooms in terms of art included: the lady of the house’s dressing room, the master’s playroom, and the armory with a collection of 28 pieces of hunting weapons. In the master’s room, decorated with a large portrait of Maria from the Sołtan family, Zdzisławowa Grocholska, and Henryk and Ksawera from the Brzozowski family Grocholska, was a collection of old weapons, among which stood out: a Turkish saber of Henryk
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Zdzisław Count Grocholski: “Pietniczany”
“Kiev Diary” vol. 3. Published by the Kiev Circle, London 1966. Received courtesy of Mr. Krzysztof Kownacki.
On the border of Poland from the Cossacks and Tatars, along the Dnieper and Boh, stretched a line of watchtowers, established by the borderland population. To this day, Ukraine amazes with its countless ramparts, castles, horodyszcze, and mounds.
On them, constant watches were maintained, day and night, watching from the tops of the watchtowers, barrels covered with tar were lit for this purpose, or warned with royal bells sent from Poland.
Thus life was arranged over the centuries along these routes.
On one of them, Kuczmański, at the mouth of the Winniczek to the Boh, right next to Vinnytsia lies Pietniczany.
It was once a settlement where, before a Tatar or Cossack storm, local residents sought refuge, full of distant dungeons, caves, underground passages, sometimes a quarter of a mile away.
The settlement was closely connected with Vinnytsia, on the ground and underground, it is mentioned very long ago in the inspection by the so-called hospodarski diak Tyszkiewicz that “k’zamku Winnyckomu tiahne”.
Indeed, the two Vinnytsia castles and the Pietniczany castle formed one whole.
The former capital of the Bracław Voivodeship, Vinnytsia, had an old castle from the times of Bohusz Korecki, built on an island between two branches of the picturesque Boh: the castle was surrounded by a defensive rampart, had strong corner towers and bastions with crenellations, equipped with bronze and iron cannons.
The second castle was actually a defensive monastery, erected by Kalinowski, heavily fortified, with walls of wild stone and brick.
Finally, the Pietniczany castle, initially only defensive, later served for fortress purposes, partly for habitation.
Inexhaustible Vinnytsia and Pietniczany walls often repelled hordes and bands.
Haidamak bands also looked here and caused immense devastation.
Finally, the brave hetman Kalinowski drove away that gang. An interesting manifesto from the land writer from those times remains. He reports that in the kacelarji he found neither a pen nor an inkwell, only a lot of honey.
The writer was noble, thinking more about ink than about butter.
Constant skirmishes with the Cossack wilderness severely weakened the fortress until finally Michał from Grabów Grocholski, a valiant soldier, established order here when he succeeded hetman Kalinowski.
In Vinnytsia and Pietniczany he made numerous foundations, and passing Pietniczany to his son Marcin, the future voivode, together with him laid the foundations for the new Pietniczany castle.
Tatar and Cossack prisoners erected the building from monoliths and strengthened it for many years.
Grocholski the voivode finally completed the castle, and being a wealthy lord, he spared no expense to give the building a character of great culture beyond strength.
By then the reign of King Stas Medyceusz had begun. The beauty of the king’s artistic intentions already radiated far beyond the capital.
The Stanisławowski style travels far to the Borderlands. And a whole series of castle-palaces arise on the Styr, Ros, Boh, in a new structure.
Defense, as the main goal, remains in the inexhaustible walls, often in the towers, but ornamentation also marks, whether in rows of columns of Greek order, or in a portico with niches based on columns, or in semicircular galleries connecting the wings of the palace with the main facade.
But what is particularly notable in Pietniczany is the lower and upper vaults. Pointed vaults made of hewn stones or bricks.
A whole series of salons on the upper floor with barrel or cross vaults.
And still extremely interesting paintings.
Already at that time, interiors were painted all over Poland.
Arcadia with Princess Radziwiłłowa gave the beginning, Puławy soon caught the fashion, and then the entire Borderlands with greater or lesser artistry followed the fashion.
Everyone paints. Often masters brought ad hoc, more often the whole family. Both the one who learned and the one who did not know much about drawing.
And the theme? In the Borderlands, of course, some mighty castle, necessarily with towers, some rocks with grottoes and caves, some huge trees or shrubs.
In Pietniczany, the upper salons have very good Pompeian drawing, perfectly toned, especially on the vault and chimneys.
However, the “black room” on the ground floor is more interesting.
In dark half-tones, in semi-darkness, on the walls and vaults mountains, forests, waters black as night.
In the “black room” they deliberated.
They deliberated for a very long time. They deliberated over the good of the country.
King Stanisław August was here, who came from Vinnytsia along the linden avenue planted especially for him, as was Prince Józef Poniatowski.
In the “black room” Stanisław Grocholski, the patriarch of the entire Borderlands, who had “strength in peace,” as Stanisław Tarnowski writes about him, deliberated for a long time.
Thus Pietniczany presented themselves for many years.
They still had valuable archives, a rich library, a gallery of paintings, and many mementos of the past.
Together with Vinnytsia, they were a center of Polish culture in the Borderlands.
The nearby black route did not overcome them. The route that brought black misfortune, murders, looting, fires.
The oppression of the tsars also did not overcome them.
They deported, oppressed, during the uprisings, the owner, but he returned.
Will the current heir Zdzisław Count Grocholski also return?
–
Pietniczany lies at the mouth of the Winniczek River into the Boh, on the so-called “Kuczmański Route” (right next to the city of Vinnytsia). The first mention of this place was found in the description of the Vinnytsia castle from 1543, made by the diak Lew Patejowicz Tyszkowicz. He says, among other things, “… In Petnyczany and in Demydiwciach, in the names of Miśka Stepanowycza stands ten men, whose name Petnyczany was served by his father Stepan to His Lordship for the late Prince Konstantin…”. The second certain news regarding Pietniczany comes from 1569. At that time, Łazarz Deszkowski, son of Bohdan, the Bracław ensign, gave the Pietniczany estate to his uncle Semen, son of Vasyl on Obodne Obodeński. Due to the lack of documents, it has not been established whether the Miśko Stepanowicz mentioned in the first of the cited documents was an ancestor of the Deszkowskis or only the one giving them his rights to Pietniczany.
After the death of Semen Obodeński, who left no offspring, Pietniczany was inherited by the children of his brother Bohdan and Maryna Kierdey-Dziusianka, that is, Hawryło, Teodor, Józef, Vasyl, Anastazja married to Janusz Kierdey-Koziński, and Olena to Michał Myszka-Chołoniewski. Teodor Obodeński, the Bracław hunter, having paid off his brothers and sisters, took over the entire inheritance, henceforth calling himself the lord of Pietniczany. Having married Marusza Pokalewska, he had three daughters with her, of whom Maria married Teodor Łasko-Woronowicki, bringing him Pietniczany as a dowry. Of their six children, five died childless, and the only surviving daughter Teofila gave her hand along with the vast fortune, which also included Pietniczany, to Michał Luba from Radzimin Radzimiński. He was the head of the Bracław line of his family. From Teofila Łasko’s daughter, he left numerous offspring, of which Michał, the Bracław stolnik, bought or inherited from the remaining heirs all parts of the Bracław estates, thus reuniting the entire fortune in his hand.
Michał Radzimiński had with Małgorzata from Kamieńskis also quite a few, because five children. Of them, two sons and a daughter died childless. Pietniczany, as well as Sabarów, Soroczyn, Woronowica, and Stepanówka, were inherited by the second daughter, Anna, bringing them as a dowry to her husband Michał from Grabów Grocholski. Born in 1705, Michał Grocholski h. Syrokomla first served in the pancerny banner of Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki, the Kraków castellan, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. Then as the regiment commander of the Ukrainian and Volhynian party, he fought against enemy invasions, for which King Augustus III appointed him his captain. He also twice served as an envoy to the Sejm, and in the office of the Bracław voivodeship land judge, he became known as an excellent lawyer. From his father, besides sums placed on several estates, Michał Grocholski did not inherit any personal property. However, he managed his wife’s estates so well that he soon significantly increased them.
He contributed to the Polish society of the Ruthenian lands by founding a church and monastery of the Dominican Fathers in Vinnytsia in 1760, as well as adorning the existing Jesuit church in this city with several altars and a pulpit. In one of his estates – Tereszki, he also erected a chapel.
In Pietniczany itself, together with his son Marcin, Michał Grocholski raised the framework of a new castle-palace, employing Tatar and Turkish prisoners for its construction. It was to be a fortress with extremely massive walls, with iron bars in the windows, towers, loopholes, and a double gate.
Thus a square fortress was formed, adapted for habitation and at the same time for repelling a possible attack. For now, it was one-story, with two-story towers in the corners. On two sides of the castle, not far from it, stood further square, one-story towers. From them, moats and ramparts extended, surrounding an oval fortress square several hundred meters long. These fortifications were closed by a vaulted entrance gate, with two rooms adjoining it. At the turn of the moat and ramparts, there stood another, small, cylindrical one-story tower.
Michał Grocholski (died in 1765) also had numerous offspring, five daughters and two sons. In the family division made in 1771, the younger Franciszek received after his parents Tereszki and Malinki, which fell to the Grocholski family from the Ostrog ordination, further Woronowica, Stepanówka, and Soroczyn, as well as Komarów and Michałówka, or Kostkopol, acquired from the heirs of Adam Olizar, the Trościaniec key bought from Stanisław Szandyrowski and others, partial owners, Łataniec bought from Prince Kajetan Rościszewski, as well as the manor in Dubno and half of the life estate on the Zozów key. The elder son Marcin (1727 – 1807), the last Bracław voivode, the starost of Szerokogrobelski and Kruszliniecki, married first to Cecylia Myszka-Chołoniewska, and in later life to Antonina Gałecka, primo voto Łoska, an envoy to the Sejm, a supporter of King Stanisław August and the Constitution of May 3, took the Hryców key with a series of manors, where he erected a new palace, Strzyżawka acquired by Michał Grocholski from Antoni Potocki, Desna, or Michałówka with Kołomyjówka, Ławrówka, Prehórka, Stadnica, and finally Pietniczany itself, as well as the manor in Vinnytsia, as well as the second half of the life estate on the Zozów key, a manor in Lviv, etc. Each of Michał Grocholski’s five daughters received a dowry of 60,000 złp. The entire estate he left behind was therefore very significant.
Voivode Marcin Grocholski lived most willingly in his new palace in Hryców, less often in Pietniczany. He did not increase the considerable estate inherited from his father. After his death, these goods were further fragmented. By virtue of the division made by the voivode during his lifetime in 1792, they were divided among five sons born from the first marriage: Jan, the Crown Standard-Bearer, Michał, the Zwinogród Starost, Mikołaj, the Podolian Governor, and Ludwik. The second son Adam did not inherit the patrimony because he fell at Maciejowice. Pietniczany fell to Michał Grocholski (1765 – 1833), married to Maria Śliźniówna. They settled in the Pietniczany castle immediately after the wedding, and it was during their time that it underwent the first fundamental transformations. The inspiration for all the changes was the energetic lady starościna. Raised in the spirit of the “Stanisławowski era,” she felt uncomfortable in the austere walls of the fortified castle. Therefore, wanting to at least decorate her apartments, she first ordered all the rooms to be repainted. The walls of the salon then held a blue color, and under its vault, satin draperies in white and blue stripes, imitating a tent, were hung. One of the corner rooms was decorated with green draperies, and another was painted in a sandy tone.
The reconstruction of the castle, initiated by the energetic lady starościna, was not limited to the interiors. It was at her initiative that the entire building was raised one more floor and received two side pavilions. In the garden, there was formerly an old-fashioned oak magazine, whose bins were intended for guests when a larger gathering occurred. In view of the reconstruction of the castle into a palace and the construction of new pavilions, it was moved to another location as no longer needed. At that time, new stables, carriage houses, workshops, a dovecote, and other farm buildings were also built. These works were directed by the architect Laeufer, previously active in Janów at the Chołoniewski family.
Michał and Maria from the Źliźniów Grocholscy had a daughter Maria married to Henryk Count Rzewuski, a known writer, and a son Henryk Cyprian (1802 – 1866), who in 1829 married Franciszka Ksawera Brzozowska h. Belina (1807 – 1872), daughter of Karol and Ksawera Trzecieska h. Strzemię, a future memoirist. After his father, he inherited Pietniczany and Strzyżawka. He also completed the reconstruction of the castle, adding a portico with a balcony on the garden side. Inside, he transformed the staircase and directed painting works in finishing the room decorations. The task of decorating the castle rooms with paintings was undertaken independently by a painter named Rzewicki, but as it later turned out, he had too high an opinion of his talent and failed the hopes placed in him. As a result of the not very successful decoration of the antechamber made by Rzewicki, Henryk Grocholski then agreed to personally arrange the patterns of the paintings, based on motifs taken from albums containing sketches of the most beautiful ancient and modern frescoes. The compositions arranged by the owner of Pietniczany were faithfully executed by Rzewicki from then on. All the projects of alterations made during the time of Henryk and Franciszka Ksawera Grocholscy were developed by an architect abroad.
After Henryk, Pietniczany fell to his elder son Stanisław Wincenty (1835 – 1907), married to Wanda Count Zamoyska (1846 – 1922), daughter of Zdzisław and Józefa Walicka h. Łada. The last owner was their son Zdzisław Count Grocholski (1881 – 1968), married since 1910 to Maria Sołtan h. Syrokomla odm. (1881 – 1963), daughter of Bohdan and Maria Franciszka Sołtan. From the mid-19th century until the destruction of the Pietniczany castle, it did not undergo major changes.
Despite its classicist reconstruction and the addition of side pavilions, the main body of the palace complex retained its original, austere shape of a castle and also bore its name to the end; Pietniczany Castle. It had a rectangular plan, but very close to a square, and three stories: a vaulted, relatively low ground floor, above it a much higher, also vaulted, serving as the piano nobile first floor, and the later added second floor, already with flat ceilings. Both the symmetrical front elevation of the castle with six widely spaced axes and the garden elevation on the extreme axes were accented by corner projections closed with triangular, bracketed, smooth pediments. The ground floor of the castle, with elevations entirely rusticated, was equipped with relatively small, rectangular, six-pane windows, framed in wide, profiled surrounds, closed with horizontal pediments on consoles. Separated from the ground floor by a narrow cornice, the first floor had windows of the same width, but two panes higher than the lower ones, with triangular pediment tops, also on consoles. The second floor’s windows, similar in shape and size to the ground floor’s, received identical framing but without any pediments. The decoration of both side elevations was similar to the longer elevations, but the four window openings were spaced so that the two central ones formed a pair, while the two outer ones were set much further apart. All the smoothly plastered elevations were closed by a wide triglyph frieze, with a row of brackets and a profiled cornice above. Already during the first expansion, both projections of the front facade were connected by a gallery composed of six Tuscan columns without bases, supporting the upper gallery along its entire length, enclosed by a beautiful wrought iron balustrade with both vertical and plant grotesque motifs. The two central columns were eventually enclosed with glazed doors. A small vestibule was thus formed. The garden gallery was created by eight more massive columns, tapering towards the top, placed on a low stone terrace, also without bases. The upper gallery was laid with black and white marble tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The main motif of the garden balustrade was partially overlapping ovals. The main body of the castle was covered by a fairly high, smooth hipped roof, distinguished above the projections, with four massive, plastered chimneys spaced evenly.
The quarter-circle, residential, also partially vaulted galleries connected the castle with the later built, opposite pavilions, forming a large horseshoe. On the front courtyard side, the gallery with some blind windows had elevations entirely covered with rustication. The window openings framed in surrounds were topped with horizontal pediments on consoles. Each gallery was preceded by twelve columns, along with the residential garden section covered with a smooth gabled roof, with three massive chimneys. Initially, the roof rested directly on the column capitals, but later a beam was added under it and decorated with a triglyph frieze.
A different appearance was given to the garden side of the gallery. The left was covered with smooth plasters, enlivened only by wide, profiled surrounds of rectangular, low-set windows or doors. The right, housing part of the representative rooms, also with smooth plasters, received a richer decoration. Between the rectangular windows or double porte-fenetres in the Serlian type, wall-attached half-columns were placed. At the curve of the central arch, two hemispherically vaulted niches were also placed, probably intended for statues.
Two identical in shape, two-story pavilions with high basements, three-axis on the courtyard and garden side, and two-axis on the side, with a plan almost of a perfect square, also had identical external decoration. Their plaster on the ground floor was entirely rusticated. On the upper floor, rustication was used only as vertical bands covering the corners and distinguishing the central axes with false projections. The windows on the lower floor were topped with pediments on consoles, on the upper floor they had no pediments. The floors were horizontally divided by a narrow cornice, and the elevations were topped by a much wider, profiled one.
The Pietniczany castle is one of the very few residences in the eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose interior layout gained detailed documentation while it was still inhabited by the owners. In 1905, measurements were made of all the floors of the main body, as well as both pavilions and galleries. Unfortunately, this documentation is only minimally supplemented by photographs, mostly based on information from the last owner. Not in all cases was the purpose of individual rooms and halls the same in 1905 and 1917. Not all were described either. However, it is certain that they had smooth walls in solid colors or painted in various compositions, oak parquet floors laid in a geometric pattern, two-wing paneled doors lacquered white, and similar window joinery, most often high, round stoves with a cornice at the top, and not very numerous fireplaces.
From the vestibule enclosed by the frames of two columns, through the stone-framed door, one entered a windowless hall. Massive, oak, two-wing doors, covered with half-centimeter thick iron sheet, decorated with narrow, diagonal, intersecting strips, were pierced at chest height by two round loopholes. On the inside of the door hung an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. From this side, they were closed with three powerful, oak bolts. Since the hall was windowless, a second pair of oak doors with two panes secured by grilles with the Syrokomla coat of arms was installed. The hall had a barrel vault, whitewashed. A large, wrought iron decorative lantern hung from it. The walls were maintained in a sandy tone. Shallow fluting divided them into large rectangles. The movable furnishings consisted of a table with a top one meter wide and 10 cm thick, made from a single board, coat hangers, and the so-called “barrier,” or bed for the duty Cossack. Above the table hung an interesting and valuable plan of the Pietniczany key from 1740, intricately crafted, with Polish and Latin inscriptions: “The boundary between the lands of the Honorable Grocholski family, and the town of His Royal Majesty Vinnytsia,” and above the barrier an old-fashioned elongated mirror, composed of three panes, framed in gilded, patinated frames. The decoration of this room was complemented by a few hunting trophies and annually changed harvest wreaths.
Adjacent to the entrance hall on its left side was a second hall, recently called the “hunting” hall, and on the 1905 plan simply the antechamber. It had a ribbed, whitewashed vault, with a wrought lantern, oil-painted walls, and a stone floor.
There stood a high, round stove made of granite stones, covered with whitewashed cloth, a brick fireplace, a wooden bench, a chest the height of a table with wood for kindling, and a row of chairs with octagonal backs and Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. On the walls hung stuffed heads of deer, fallow deer, and wild boar. In this room, hunters gathered directly after the hunt for tea.
The doors on the left side of the “hunting” hall led to a corner guest room, vaulted similarly and with walls painted also in a smooth light color. The furnishings consisted of then-modern, comfortable furniture, but without a definite style. The greatest decoration of this room was an old painting of the Madonna and Child, of the Italian school. Various residents lived here, sometimes staying in Pietniczany for many years.
The “hunting” hall also connected directly with the room designated in 1905 as the library, recently called the “black” room, with two windows overlooking the garden terrace. It was rib-vaulted. All its walls were covered with romantic-style paintings, executed al fresco by artists, Napoleonic emigrants, imitating rocks, trees, shrubs, a stream with a waterfall, and there was also a medieval castle on a high mountain. Precisely because of these paintings and the low-lying arches of the vault, there were no pictures in the “black” room. Only above the entrance to the corner room called both in 1905 and 1917 “Arab,” hung a sultan’s signature, framed in a narrow gilded frame, and above a large couch covered with kilims – a large stuffed owl sitting on a branch. In one of the corners stood a round stove. The entire oak plank floor was constantly covered with a thick Persian carpet.
The center of the “black” room was occupied by a large, square table of black oak with thick, carved legs, covered with a kilim. On it stood a lamp made of gilded bronze in the shape of an Ionic column. The chairs of walnut wood were also upholstered with kilims. The black marble fireplace was so large that its cornice was at shoulder height of a tall man warming himself by it. On the cornice, on the sides stood three-candle bronze candelabra, with figures of Egyptians holding candlesticks on their shoulders or heads.
Closer to the center were two other bronze candlesticks with wide pedestals, in the middle an old-fashioned clock, also in a bronze frame. Above the fireplace, along its entire width, was set into the wall a mirror composed of three parts, about half a meter high, without any frames. In the spacious hearth of the fireplace, entire huge logs easily fit. A two-wing walnut screen, decorated in the upper part with views of the desert and Arabs with camels, painted on canvas by Maria Hieronimowa Sobańska and Princess Stefania Korybut-Woroniecka, protected those sitting around from excessive heat. Under the window stood a mahogany desk with bronze decorations, covered with a Turkish tablecloth. The further furnishings of the room were comfortable, but newer sofas, also decorated with bronzes. The equipment was completed by a piano, harmonium, and several armchairs and chairs not belonging to the set, while on the sides of the sofas were small bookcases, also with bronze applications. Various family celebrations took place in the “black” room. A Christmas tree for the children of officials and servants was also arranged there.
Of the two rooms adjacent to the “black” room on the left side, the already mentioned corner “Arab” room had walls decorated with several Arabic inscriptions, verses from the Koran. There were comfortable sofas and a round table of black wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, covered with an eastern tablecloth. On the table lay the Gospel in an Arabic edition from around 1720, bound in parchment skin. The adjacent “Turkish” room looked similar, directly connecting with the gallery, designated as a guest room in 1905. Both were painted and furnished by Maria from the Grocholski family, Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska, later a Discalced Carmelite, who traveled a lot with her husband in the Middle East and knew the Arabic language.
On the right from the central hall was another hall, always called the service hall, vaulted similarly to the “hunting” hall, with dark wooden bench-chests and oak chairs, on the backs of which also appeared Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. The right corner projection room often changed its purpose. At the time of measurement, it was named the “writer’s room.” On the right side, partially adjacent to the “service” hall was also a fairly large room serving as a pantry. Its main piece of furniture was a huge, multi-winged cabinet containing family silver, porcelain, and table linen, accumulated over five generations of the Grocholski family. The right garden corner room, the equivalent of the “Arab” room on the opposite end, served as a pantry but was also called “over the cellars.” From there, spiral stairs led to the castle cellars and underground corridors, extending far under the garden, but partially already collapsed.
From the “service” hall, straight ahead, one entered the second two-window room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, identical in dimensions to the “black” room on its left side, also rib-vaulted, with a round stove in the corner, serving as a home chapel. It had blue-toned walls and simple furnishings. In the altar hung a large painting of Our Lady, under it a gilded crucifix of Byzantine shapes with a reliquary in the middle, and around it engravings depicting the Stations of the Cross.
In the left, projection part of the castle, between the middle “Turkish” room and the front guest room, were side stairs leading both up and down to the cellars. The grand staircase, illuminated by two large wrought iron lanterns, with wide oak steps leading to the upper floor, was located directly opposite the main entrance hall. On its walls hung family portraits, mostly of the “Sarmatian” type, and opposite the central turn a large mirror, above it a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski in his youth, painted in a red uniform.
On the first floor, the central part of the front tract was occupied by a square hall, also called the “room over the stairs,” equipped with a stone slab floor covered with Turkish carpets. On an oak table stood a bronze fragment of “The March to Wawel” by Wacław Szymanowski, depicting Stefan Batory, Hetman Jan Zamoyski, and a group of winged knights.
On the walls hung two portraits: Jan Zamoyski in a red delia and with a baton in hand, and Colonel Remigian Grocholski (1643 – 1705), a participant in the Vienna relief, depicted in armor and with a mace. It was a copy of an original from the era, kept in the Tuchów church.
Two rooms, one on the left, the other on the right side of the hall, were marked as antechambers on the 1905 plan. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the right wing served as a billiard room for the youth. Both its vault and walls were painted with patterned oil paint. From the ceiling hung a chandelier of cast brass, decorated with eagles and one large Polish eagle in a crown. Along the walls of this room stood walnut cabinets on four legs, decorated with white marble tiles. In the middle of the single-wing doors was Diana with a bow and dog. These cabinets contained bound volumes of illustrated magazines. There was also a large table with a white marble top and carved mahogany chairs. Several paintings of the Dutch school hung here, as well as a battle painting with a knight galloping on a white horse against the backdrop of fires – a painting depicting the plundering of the Temple of Sibyl in Puławy by Russian soldiers, and a portrait of King Stanisław August, sitting at a table and resting his hand on an hourglass, depicted without a wig, in French attire, a copy or replica of an original by Bacciarelli.
The front, right, projection corner room, rib-vaulted and painted al fresco by Tadeusz Grocholski, was named the “heraldic salon.” In the center of its ceiling, the artist presented the family coat of arms Syrokomla, and in the corners, in medallions, the coats of arms of houses with which the Grocholski family was more closely related through marriages. This room housed library cabinets containing the most valuable and oldest part of the castle’s book collection, as well as illustrated magazines in Polish, French, and English, of more recent date. The rest of the library was scattered in various other rooms. The Pietniczany book collection had no catalog.
The right projection room on the garden side, designated as a salon in 1905, was recently named a study. It seems it was not properly furnished at the time, serving temporarily as a storage for miniatures of kings, queens, and French princes, as well as various tapestries, engravings, vases, and other decorative items, purchased in Paris by Princess Maria Czartoryska.
Between the projection rooms was an elongated dining room, vaulted similarly to others, with oil-painted walls in a golden color, imitating sun rays. A large chandelier of dark bronze hung from the ceiling. Besides the large extendable table and chairs, this room contained a carved glazed cabinet with antique Saxon porcelain, buffets, and side tables. On the walls hung oil portraits of Voivode Marcin Grocholski and his wife Cecylia from the Myszka-Chołoniewski family, both copies of Lampi, as well as starost Michał and starościna Maria from the Śliźniów family, of unspecified authorship.
Both from the corner “study” and the dining room, one could enter the first room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, originally named “Greek,” and before 1917 “gray,” painted in a pearl color. The white ribbed vault was adorned with a large Venetian chandelier.
The furnishings included, alongside a piano, a set of mahogany furniture decorated with marbles and bronzes, a glazed walnut cabinet containing, among other things, silver cups with old coins and several smaller items. The artistic equipment included a Boulle clock, several bronze candlesticks of artistic and historical value, and six miniatures with heads of old men in deep, gilded frames. In the “gray” salon, quite a few paintings were gathered, including portraits: a large one of Antoni Grocholski (1767 – 1805), captain of the national cavalry, depicted sitting in an armchair, girded with the Order of the White Eagle, painted by Angelika Kauffmann; further the Grocholski sword-bearers, sisters of Antoni: Generalowa Tekla Franciszkowa Łaźnińska (1772 – 1797) and Julia Colonel Józefowa Poniatowska (1773 – 1832), both painted by Józef Pitschmann; the Voivodess Salomea from the Grocholski family, primo voto Potocka, secundo voto Dziekońska; Prince Stanisław Chołoniewski; pastel portraits of Maria from the Grocholski family Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska and her sister Helena Janowa Brzozowska, painted in Paris in the 1850s by Tadeusz Grocholski; his own small self-portrait in a large hat with an ostrich feather a la Rembrandt, and finally an ebony easel oil painting depicting an Italian woman with a basket of flowers, also painted by Tadeusz Grocholski.
A similarly sized, also two-window neighboring salon, designated as “Pompeian” in 1905, later named “yellow” after the changed color of the walls, had patterns from Raphael’s stanzas painted on the vaults. Its entire floor was almost entirely covered by a large Turkish carpet. Only in front of the white marble fireplace lay another, smaller one. Above the fireplace, in a white, narrow, plaster frame was an old-fashioned mirror composed of several parts, and on the cornice of the fireplace stood two three-candle, bronze, gilded candelabra. From the center of the vault hung a multi-candle chandelier, also made of gilded bronze. Among the furniture stood out, among others, a low, two-winged mahogany cabinet decorated with bronzes, with a top of pink marble, on which also stood a marble bust of Prince Adam Czartoryski and family photographs. Above the cabinet hung an oil portrait of Bazyli Walicki, Voivode of Rawa, framed in an oval frame. The rest of the “yellow” salon’s furnishings consisted of many antique pieces of furniture, some of which came from the Czartoryski residence in France, from where they arrived in Pietniczany along with other items belonging to Princess Maria from the Grocholski family Czartoryska. The artistic equipment was completed by portraits hanging on both sides of the high mirror set into the wall; on the right side Henryk Grocholski (1802-1866) and his wife Ksawera from the Brzozowski family (1807-1874), and on the left a print depicting Zofia from the Czartoryski family, Stanisławowa Zamoyska (1780 – 1837) with three sons according to François Gérard. On an old easel, covered with a Turkish tablecloth, was placed a portrait of Stanisław Count Grocholski (1835 – 1907), painted on wood by Kazimierz Pochwalski.
In the left projection part of the castle, besides the side staircase, there were still three rooms with varying purposes. One of them recently served as a bedroom. So there stood a large French ebony bed. Above it hung a good copy of the Sistine Madonna and two miniatures depicting Zdzisław and Józefa from the Walicki family Zamoyski.
The second floor had the layout, dimensions, and shape of rooms and halls identical to the first floor, although they were lower. It also had almost entirely residential purposes, both in 1905 and 1917. In the hall hung a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu and a painting depicting a dwarf in a military uniform of the court of Louis XIV (?), and under the ceiling a gallery of portraits of French kings and princes, composed of over 30 images.
Above the “yellow” salon was a library room. Its furnishings mainly consisted of glazed walnut cabinets decorated with bronze fittings, filled with books. The entire Pietniczany book collection numbered about 10,000 volumes.
This room also housed collections of domestic butterflies and moths along with some colorful tropical butterflies, collections of eggs of many domestic birds and nests of Podolian birds, and a collection of minerals gathered from various Polish lands.
In this group was also a crystal cross mounted on a base of Siberian metals, a gift from the Siberians to Ksawera Grocholska, a token of gratitude from exiles for her many years of care over them. This natural history collection was a memento of Henryk Grocholski, who besides it left quite a few valuable publications in this field in various languages. In the library hung several more old family portraits, of smaller format.
The room above the “gray” salon served as the master’s bedroom. It had furnishings in the style of Louis XV and XVI, consisting of: two mahogany beds with bronzes and similar small cabinets and one large one, as well as a desk with a top covered with leather with embossed and gilded edges. Besides that, there was also a sofa, mahogany tables, armchairs, etc. On one of the walls hung a Turkish cloth from Vienna, on another a Buczacz cloth, resembling wide Słuck belts. Against the background of the Buczacz cloth was placed a bronze clock in the style of Louis XVI, and on both sides similar wall sconces. Also, other rooms on the second floor in both projection parts and adjacent to the hall had antique furniture, some richly inlaid or inlaid. In all, there were many bronzes, prints, and oil paintings. The best-equipped rooms in terms of art included: the lady of the house’s dressing room, the master’s playroom, and the armory with a collection of 28 pieces of hunting weapons. In the master’s room, decorated with a large portrait of Maria from the Sołtan family, Zdzisławowa Grocholska, and Henryk and Ksawera from the Brzozowski family Grocholska, was a collection of old weapons, among which stood out: a Turkish saber of Henryk
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Zdzisław Count Grocholski: “Pietniczany”
“Kiev Diary” vol. 3. Published by the Kiev Circle, London 1966. Received courtesy of Mr. Krzysztof Kownacki.
On the border of Poland from the Cossacks and Tatars, along the Dnieper and Boh, stretched a line of watchtowers, established by the borderland population. To this day, Ukraine amazes with its countless ramparts, castles, horodyszcze, and mounds.
On them, constant watches were maintained, day and night, watching from the tops of the watchtowers, barrels covered with tar were lit for this purpose, or warned with royal bells sent from Poland.
Thus life was arranged over the centuries along these routes.
On one of them, Kuczmański, at the mouth of the Winniczek to the Boh, right next to Vinnytsia lies Pietniczany.
It was once a settlement where, before a Tatar or Cossack storm, local residents sought refuge, full of distant dungeons, caves, underground passages, sometimes a quarter of a mile away.
The settlement was closely connected with Vinnytsia, on the ground and underground, it is mentioned very long ago in the inspection by the so-called hospodarski diak Tyszkiewicz that “k’zamku Winnyckomu tiahne”.
Indeed, the two Vinnytsia castles and the Pietniczany castle formed one whole.
The former capital of the Bracław Voivodeship, Vinnytsia, had an old castle from the times of Bohusz Korecki, built on an island between two branches of the picturesque Boh: the castle was surrounded by a defensive rampart, had strong corner towers and bastions with crenellations, equipped with bronze and iron cannons.
The second castle was actually a defensive monastery, erected by Kalinowski, heavily fortified, with walls of wild stone and brick.
Finally, the Pietniczany castle, initially only defensive, later served for fortress purposes, partly for habitation.
Inexhaustible Vinnytsia and Pietniczany walls often repelled hordes and bands.
Haidamak bands also looked here and caused immense devastation.
Finally, the brave hetman Kalinowski drove away that gang. An interesting manifesto from the land writer from those times remains. He reports that in the kacelarji he found neither a pen nor an inkwell, only a lot of honey.
The writer was noble, thinking more about ink than about butter.
Constant skirmishes with the Cossack wilderness severely weakened the fortress until finally Michał from Grabów Grocholski, a valiant soldier, established order here when he succeeded hetman Kalinowski.
In Vinnytsia and Pietniczany he made numerous foundations, and passing Pietniczany to his son Marcin, the future voivode, together with him laid the foundations for the new Pietniczany castle.
Tatar and Cossack prisoners erected the building from monoliths and strengthened it for many years.
Grocholski the voivode finally completed the castle, and being a wealthy lord, he spared no expense to give the building a character of great culture beyond strength.
By then the reign of King Stas Medyceusz had begun. The beauty of the king’s artistic intentions already radiated far beyond the capital.
The Stanisławowski style travels far to the Borderlands. And a whole series of castle-palaces arise on the Styr, Ros, Boh, in a new structure.
Defense, as the main goal, remains in the inexhaustible walls, often in the towers, but ornamentation also marks, whether in rows of columns of Greek order, or in a portico with niches based on columns, or in semicircular galleries connecting the wings of the palace with the main facade.
But what is particularly notable in Pietniczany is the lower and upper vaults. Pointed vaults made of hewn stones or bricks.
A whole series of salons on the upper floor with barrel or cross vaults.
And still extremely interesting paintings.
Already at that time, interiors were painted all over Poland.
Arcadia with Princess Radziwiłłowa gave the beginning, Puławy soon caught the fashion, and then the entire Borderlands with greater or lesser artistry followed the fashion.
Everyone paints. Often masters brought ad hoc, more often the whole family. Both the one who learned and the one who did not know much about drawing.
And the theme? In the Borderlands, of course, some mighty castle, necessarily with towers, some rocks with grottoes and caves, some huge trees or shrubs.
In Pietniczany, the upper salons have very good Pompeian drawing, perfectly toned, especially on the vault and chimneys.
However, the “black room” on the ground floor is more interesting.
In dark half-tones, in semi-darkness, on the walls and vaults mountains, forests, waters black as night.
In the “black room” they deliberated.
They deliberated for a very long time. They deliberated over the good of the country.
King Stanisław August was here, who came from Vinnytsia along the linden avenue planted especially for him, as was Prince Józef Poniatowski.
In the “black room” Stanisław Grocholski, the patriarch of the entire Borderlands, who had “strength in peace,” as Stanisław Tarnowski writes about him, deliberated for a long time.
Thus Pietniczany presented themselves for many years.
They still had valuable archives, a rich library, a gallery of paintings, and many mementos of the past.
Together with Vinnytsia, they were a center of Polish culture in the Borderlands.
The nearby black route did not overcome them. The route that brought black misfortune, murders, looting, fires.
The oppression of the tsars also did not overcome them.
They deported, oppressed, during the uprisings, the owner, but he returned.
Will the current heir Zdzisław Count Grocholski also return?
–
Pietniczany lies at the mouth of the Winniczek River into the Boh, on the so-called “Kuczmański Route” (right next to the city of Vinnytsia). The first mention of this place was found in the description of the Vinnytsia castle from 1543, made by the diak Lew Patejowicz Tyszkowicz. He says, among other things, “… In Petnyczany and in Demydiwciach, in the names of Miśka Stepanowycza stands ten men, whose name Petnyczany was served by his father Stepan to His Lordship for the late Prince Konstantin…”. The second certain news regarding Pietniczany comes from 1569. At that time, Łazarz Deszkowski, son of Bohdan, the Bracław ensign, gave the Pietniczany estate to his uncle Semen, son of Vasyl on Obodne Obodeński. Due to the lack of documents, it has not been established whether the Miśko Stepanowicz mentioned in the first of the cited documents was an ancestor of the Deszkowskis or only the one giving them his rights to Pietniczany.
After the death of Semen Obodeński, who left no offspring, Pietniczany was inherited by the children of his brother Bohdan and Maryna Kierdey-Dziusianka, that is, Hawryło, Teodor, Józef, Vasyl, Anastazja married to Janusz Kierdey-Koziński, and Olena to Michał Myszka-Chołoniewski. Teodor Obodeński, the Bracław hunter, having paid off his brothers and sisters, took over the entire inheritance, henceforth calling himself the lord of Pietniczany. Having married Marusza Pokalewska, he had three daughters with her, of whom Maria married Teodor Łasko-Woronowicki, bringing him Pietniczany as a dowry. Of their six children, five died childless, and the only surviving daughter Teofila gave her hand along with the vast fortune, which also included Pietniczany, to Michał Luba from Radzimin Radzimiński. He was the head of the Bracław line of his family. From Teofila Łasko’s daughter, he left numerous offspring, of which Michał, the Bracław stolnik, bought or inherited from the remaining heirs all parts of the Bracław estates, thus reuniting the entire fortune in his hand.
Michał Radzimiński had with Małgorzata from Kamieńskis also quite a few, because five children. Of them, two sons and a daughter died childless. Pietniczany, as well as Sabarów, Soroczyn, Woronowica, and Stepanówka, were inherited by the second daughter, Anna, bringing them as a dowry to her husband Michał from Grabów Grocholski. Born in 1705, Michał Grocholski h. Syrokomla first served in the pancerny banner of Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki, the Kraków castellan, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. Then as the regiment commander of the Ukrainian and Volhynian party, he fought against enemy invasions, for which King Augustus III appointed him his captain. He also twice served as an envoy to the Sejm, and in the office of the Bracław voivodeship land judge, he became known as an excellent lawyer. From his father, besides sums placed on several estates, Michał Grocholski did not inherit any personal property. However, he managed his wife’s estates so well that he soon significantly increased them.
He contributed to the Polish society of the Ruthenian lands by founding a church and monastery of the Dominican Fathers in Vinnytsia in 1760, as well as adorning the existing Jesuit church in this city with several altars and a pulpit. In one of his estates – Tereszki, he also erected a chapel.
In Pietniczany itself, together with his son Marcin, Michał Grocholski raised the framework of a new castle-palace, employing Tatar and Turkish prisoners for its construction. It was to be a fortress with extremely massive walls, with iron bars in the windows, towers, loopholes, and a double gate.
Thus a square fortress was formed, adapted for habitation and at the same time for repelling a possible attack. For now, it was one-story, with two-story towers in the corners. On two sides of the castle, not far from it, stood further square, one-story towers. From them, moats and ramparts extended, surrounding an oval fortress square several hundred meters long. These fortifications were closed by a vaulted entrance gate, with two rooms adjoining it. At the turn of the moat and ramparts, there stood another, small, cylindrical one-story tower.
Michał Grocholski (died in 1765) also had numerous offspring, five daughters and two sons. In the family division made in 1771, the younger Franciszek received after his parents Tereszki and Malinki, which fell to the Grocholski family from the Ostrog ordination, further Woronowica, Stepanówka, and Soroczyn, as well as Komarów and Michałówka, or Kostkopol, acquired from the heirs of Adam Olizar, the Trościaniec key bought from Stanisław Szandyrowski and others, partial owners, Łataniec bought from Prince Kajetan Rościszewski, as well as the manor in Dubno and half of the life estate on the Zozów key. The elder son Marcin (1727 – 1807), the last Bracław voivode, the starost of Szerokogrobelski and Kruszliniecki, married first to Cecylia Myszka-Chołoniewska, and in later life to Antonina Gałecka, primo voto Łoska, an envoy to the Sejm, a supporter of King Stanisław August and the Constitution of May 3, took the Hryców key with a series of manors, where he erected a new palace, Strzyżawka acquired by Michał Grocholski from Antoni Potocki, Desna, or Michałówka with Kołomyjówka, Ławrówka, Prehórka, Stadnica, and finally Pietniczany itself, as well as the manor in Vinnytsia, as well as the second half of the life estate on the Zozów key, a manor in Lviv, etc. Each of Michał Grocholski’s five daughters received a dowry of 60,000 złp. The entire estate he left behind was therefore very significant.
Voivode Marcin Grocholski lived most willingly in his new palace in Hryców, less often in Pietniczany. He did not increase the considerable estate inherited from his father. After his death, these goods were further fragmented. By virtue of the division made by the voivode during his lifetime in 1792, they were divided among five sons born from the first marriage: Jan, the Crown Standard-Bearer, Michał, the Zwinogród Starost, Mikołaj, the Podolian Governor, and Ludwik. The second son Adam did not inherit the patrimony because he fell at Maciejowice. Pietniczany fell to Michał Grocholski (1765 – 1833), married to Maria Śliźniówna. They settled in the Pietniczany castle immediately after the wedding, and it was during their time that it underwent the first fundamental transformations. The inspiration for all the changes was the energetic lady starościna. Raised in the spirit of the “Stanisławowski era,” she felt uncomfortable in the austere walls of the fortified castle. Therefore, wanting to at least decorate her apartments, she first ordered all the rooms to be repainted. The walls of the salon then held a blue color, and under its vault, satin draperies in white and blue stripes, imitating a tent, were hung. One of the corner rooms was decorated with green draperies, and another was painted in a sandy tone.
The reconstruction of the castle, initiated by the energetic lady starościna, was not limited to the interiors. It was at her initiative that the entire building was raised one more floor and received two side pavilions. In the garden, there was formerly an old-fashioned oak magazine, whose bins were intended for guests when a larger gathering occurred. In view of the reconstruction of the castle into a palace and the construction of new pavilions, it was moved to another location as no longer needed. At that time, new stables, carriage houses, workshops, a dovecote, and other farm buildings were also built. These works were directed by the architect Laeufer, previously active in Janów at the Chołoniewski family.
Michał and Maria from the Źliźniów Grocholscy had a daughter Maria married to Henryk Count Rzewuski, a known writer, and a son Henryk Cyprian (1802 – 1866), who in 1829 married Franciszka Ksawera Brzozowska h. Belina (1807 – 1872), daughter of Karol and Ksawera Trzecieska h. Strzemię, a future memoirist. After his father, he inherited Pietniczany and Strzyżawka. He also completed the reconstruction of the castle, adding a portico with a balcony on the garden side. Inside, he transformed the staircase and directed painting works in finishing the room decorations. The task of decorating the castle rooms with paintings was undertaken independently by a painter named Rzewicki, but as it later turned out, he had too high an opinion of his talent and failed the hopes placed in him. As a result of the not very successful decoration of the antechamber made by Rzewicki, Henryk Grocholski then agreed to personally arrange the patterns of the paintings, based on motifs taken from albums containing sketches of the most beautiful ancient and modern frescoes. The compositions arranged by the owner of Pietniczany were faithfully executed by Rzewicki from then on. All the projects of alterations made during the time of Henryk and Franciszka Ksawera Grocholscy were developed by an architect abroad.
After Henryk, Pietniczany fell to his elder son Stanisław Wincenty (1835 – 1907), married to Wanda Count Zamoyska (1846 – 1922), daughter of Zdzisław and Józefa Walicka h. Łada. The last owner was their son Zdzisław Count Grocholski (1881 – 1968), married since 1910 to Maria Sołtan h. Syrokomla odm. (1881 – 1963), daughter of Bohdan and Maria Franciszka Sołtan. From the mid-19th century until the destruction of the Pietniczany castle, it did not undergo major changes.
Despite its classicist reconstruction and the addition of side pavilions, the main body of the palace complex retained its original, austere shape of a castle and also bore its name to the end; Pietniczany Castle. It had a rectangular plan, but very close to a square, and three stories: a vaulted, relatively low ground floor, above it a much higher, also vaulted, serving as the piano nobile first floor, and the later added second floor, already with flat ceilings. Both the symmetrical front elevation of the castle with six widely spaced axes and the garden elevation on the extreme axes were accented by corner projections closed with triangular, bracketed, smooth pediments. The ground floor of the castle, with elevations entirely rusticated, was equipped with relatively small, rectangular, six-pane windows, framed in wide, profiled surrounds, closed with horizontal pediments on consoles. Separated from the ground floor by a narrow cornice, the first floor had windows of the same width, but two panes higher than the lower ones, with triangular pediment tops, also on consoles. The second floor’s windows, similar in shape and size to the ground floor’s, received identical framing but without any pediments. The decoration of both side elevations was similar to the longer elevations, but the four window openings were spaced so that the two central ones formed a pair, while the two outer ones were set much further apart. All the smoothly plastered elevations were closed by a wide triglyph frieze, with a row of brackets and a profiled cornice above. Already during the first expansion, both projections of the front facade were connected by a gallery composed of six Tuscan columns without bases, supporting the upper gallery along its entire length, enclosed by a beautiful wrought iron balustrade with both vertical and plant grotesque motifs. The two central columns were eventually enclosed with glazed doors. A small vestibule was thus formed. The garden gallery was created by eight more massive columns, tapering towards the top, placed on a low stone terrace, also without bases. The upper gallery was laid with black and white marble tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The main motif of the garden balustrade was partially overlapping ovals. The main body of the castle was covered by a fairly high, smooth hipped roof, distinguished above the projections, with four massive, plastered chimneys spaced evenly.
The quarter-circle, residential, also partially vaulted galleries connected the castle with the later built, opposite pavilions, forming a large horseshoe. On the front courtyard side, the gallery with some blind windows had elevations entirely covered with rustication. The window openings framed in surrounds were topped with horizontal pediments on consoles. Each gallery was preceded by twelve columns, along with the residential garden section covered with a smooth gabled roof, with three massive chimneys. Initially, the roof rested directly on the column capitals, but later a beam was added under it and decorated with a triglyph frieze.
A different appearance was given to the garden side of the gallery. The left was covered with smooth plasters, enlivened only by wide, profiled surrounds of rectangular, low-set windows or doors. The right, housing part of the representative rooms, also with smooth plasters, received a richer decoration. Between the rectangular windows or double porte-fenetres in the Serlian type, wall-attached half-columns were placed. At the curve of the central arch, two hemispherically vaulted niches were also placed, probably intended for statues.
Two identical in shape, two-story pavilions with high basements, three-axis on the courtyard and garden side, and two-axis on the side, with a plan almost of a perfect square, also had identical external decoration. Their plaster on the ground floor was entirely rusticated. On the upper floor, rustication was used only as vertical bands covering the corners and distinguishing the central axes with false projections. The windows on the lower floor were topped with pediments on consoles, on the upper floor they had no pediments. The floors were horizontally divided by a narrow cornice, and the elevations were topped by a much wider, profiled one.
The Pietniczany castle is one of the very few residences in the eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose interior layout gained detailed documentation while it was still inhabited by the owners. In 1905, measurements were made of all the floors of the main body, as well as both pavilions and galleries. Unfortunately, this documentation is only minimally supplemented by photographs, mostly based on information from the last owner. Not in all cases was the purpose of individual rooms and halls the same in 1905 and 1917. Not all were described either. However, it is certain that they had smooth walls in solid colors or painted in various compositions, oak parquet floors laid in a geometric pattern, two-wing paneled doors lacquered white, and similar window joinery, most often high, round stoves with a cornice at the top, and not very numerous fireplaces.
From the vestibule enclosed by the frames of two columns, through the stone-framed door, one entered a windowless hall. Massive, oak, two-wing doors, covered with half-centimeter thick iron sheet, decorated with narrow, diagonal, intersecting strips, were pierced at chest height by two round loopholes. On the inside of the door hung an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. From this side, they were closed with three powerful, oak bolts. Since the hall was windowless, a second pair of oak doors with two panes secured by grilles with the Syrokomla coat of arms was installed. The hall had a barrel vault, whitewashed. A large, wrought iron decorative lantern hung from it. The walls were maintained in a sandy tone. Shallow fluting divided them into large rectangles. The movable furnishings consisted of a table with a top one meter wide and 10 cm thick, made from a single board, coat hangers, and the so-called “barrier,” or bed for the duty Cossack. Above the table hung an interesting and valuable plan of the Pietniczany key from 1740, intricately crafted, with Polish and Latin inscriptions: “The boundary between the lands of the Honorable Grocholski family, and the town of His Royal Majesty Vinnytsia,” and above the barrier an old-fashioned elongated mirror, composed of three panes, framed in gilded, patinated frames. The decoration of this room was complemented by a few hunting trophies and annually changed harvest wreaths.
Adjacent to the entrance hall on its left side was a second hall, recently called the “hunting” hall, and on the 1905 plan simply the antechamber. It had a ribbed, whitewashed vault, with a wrought lantern, oil-painted walls, and a stone floor.
There stood a high, round stove made of granite stones, covered with whitewashed cloth, a brick fireplace, a wooden bench, a chest the height of a table with wood for kindling, and a row of chairs with octagonal backs and Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. On the walls hung stuffed heads of deer, fallow deer, and wild boar. In this room, hunters gathered directly after the hunt for tea.
The doors on the left side of the “hunting” hall led to a corner guest room, vaulted similarly and with walls painted also in a smooth light color. The furnishings consisted of then-modern, comfortable furniture, but without a definite style. The greatest decoration of this room was an old painting of the Madonna and Child, of the Italian school. Various residents lived here, sometimes staying in Pietniczany for many years.
The “hunting” hall also connected directly with the room designated in 1905 as the library, recently called the “black” room, with two windows overlooking the garden terrace. It was rib-vaulted. All its walls were covered with romantic-style paintings, executed al fresco by artists, Napoleonic emigrants, imitating rocks, trees, shrubs, a stream with a waterfall, and there was also a medieval castle on a high mountain. Precisely because of these paintings and the low-lying arches of the vault, there were no pictures in the “black” room. Only above the entrance to the corner room called both in 1905 and 1917 “Arab,” hung a sultan’s signature, framed in a narrow gilded frame, and above a large couch covered with kilims – a large stuffed owl sitting on a branch. In one of the corners stood a round stove. The entire oak plank floor was constantly covered with a thick Persian carpet.
The center of the “black” room was occupied by a large, square table of black oak with thick, carved legs, covered with a kilim. On it stood a lamp made of gilded bronze in the shape of an Ionic column. The chairs of walnut wood were also upholstered with kilims. The black marble fireplace was so large that its cornice was at shoulder height of a tall man warming himself by it. On the cornice, on the sides stood three-candle bronze candelabra, with figures of Egyptians holding candlesticks on their shoulders or heads.
Closer to the center were two other bronze candlesticks with wide pedestals, in the middle an old-fashioned clock, also in a bronze frame. Above the fireplace, along its entire width, was set into the wall a mirror composed of three parts, about half a meter high, without any frames. In the spacious hearth of the fireplace, entire huge logs easily fit. A two-wing walnut screen, decorated in the upper part with views of the desert and Arabs with camels, painted on canvas by Maria Hieronimowa Sobańska and Princess Stefania Korybut-Woroniecka, protected those sitting around from excessive heat. Under the window stood a mahogany desk with bronze decorations, covered with a Turkish tablecloth. The further furnishings of the room were comfortable, but newer sofas, also decorated with bronzes. The equipment was completed by a piano, harmonium, and several armchairs and chairs not belonging to the set, while on the sides of the sofas were small bookcases, also with bronze applications. Various family celebrations took place in the “black” room. A Christmas tree for the children of officials and servants was also arranged there.
Of the two rooms adjacent to the “black” room on the left side, the already mentioned corner “Arab” room had walls decorated with several Arabic inscriptions, verses from the Koran. There were comfortable sofas and a round table of black wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, covered with an eastern tablecloth. On the table lay the Gospel in an Arabic edition from around 1720, bound in parchment skin. The adjacent “Turkish” room looked similar, directly connecting with the gallery, designated as a guest room in 1905. Both were painted and furnished by Maria from the Grocholski family, Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska, later a Discalced Carmelite, who traveled a lot with her husband in the Middle East and knew the Arabic language.
On the right from the central hall was another hall, always called the service hall, vaulted similarly to the “hunting” hall, with dark wooden bench-chests and oak chairs, on the backs of which also appeared Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. The right corner projection room often changed its purpose. At the time of measurement, it was named the “writer’s room.” On the right side, partially adjacent to the “service” hall was also a fairly large room serving as a pantry. Its main piece of furniture was a huge, multi-winged cabinet containing family silver, porcelain, and table linen, accumulated over five generations of the Grocholski family. The right garden corner room, the equivalent of the “Arab” room on the opposite end, served as a pantry but was also called “over the cellars.” From there, spiral stairs led to the castle cellars and underground corridors, extending far under the garden, but partially already collapsed.
From the “service” hall, straight ahead, one entered the second two-window room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, identical in dimensions to the “black” room on its left side, also rib-vaulted, with a round stove in the corner, serving as a home chapel. It had blue-toned walls and simple furnishings. In the altar hung a large painting of Our Lady, under it a gilded crucifix of Byzantine shapes with a reliquary in the middle, and around it engravings depicting the Stations of the Cross.
In the left, projection part of the castle, between the middle “Turkish” room and the front guest room, were side stairs leading both up and down to the cellars. The grand staircase, illuminated by two large wrought iron lanterns, with wide oak steps leading to the upper floor, was located directly opposite the main entrance hall. On its walls hung family portraits, mostly of the “Sarmatian” type, and opposite the central turn a large mirror, above it a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski in his youth, painted in a red uniform.
On the first floor, the central part of the front tract was occupied by a square hall, also called the “room over the stairs,” equipped with a stone slab floor covered with Turkish carpets. On an oak table stood a bronze fragment of “The March to Wawel” by Wacław Szymanowski, depicting Stefan Batory, Hetman Jan Zamoyski, and a group of winged knights.
On the walls hung two portraits: Jan Zamoyski in a red delia and with a baton in hand, and Colonel Remigian Grocholski (1643 – 1705), a participant in the Vienna relief, depicted in armor and with a mace. It was a copy of an original from the era, kept in the Tuchów church.
Two rooms, one on the left, the other on the right side of the hall, were marked as antechambers on the 1905 plan. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the right wing served as a billiard room for the youth. Both its vault and walls were painted with patterned oil paint. From the ceiling hung a chandelier of cast brass, decorated with eagles and one large Polish eagle in a crown. Along the walls of this room stood walnut cabinets on four legs, decorated with white marble tiles. In the middle of the single-wing doors was Diana with a bow and dog. These cabinets contained bound volumes of illustrated magazines. There was also a large table with a white marble top and carved mahogany chairs. Several paintings of the Dutch school hung here, as well as a battle painting with a knight galloping on a white horse against the backdrop of fires – a painting depicting the plundering of the Temple of Sibyl in Puławy by Russian soldiers, and a portrait of King Stanisław August, sitting at a table and resting his hand on an hourglass, depicted without a wig, in French attire, a copy or replica of an original by Bacciarelli.
The front, right, projection corner room, rib-vaulted and painted al fresco by Tadeusz Grocholski, was named the “heraldic salon.” In the center of its ceiling, the artist presented the family coat of arms Syrokomla, and in the corners, in medallions, the coats of arms of houses with which the Grocholski family was more closely related through marriages. This room housed library cabinets containing the most valuable and oldest part of the castle’s book collection, as well as illustrated magazines in Polish, French, and English, of more recent date. The rest of the library was scattered in various other rooms. The Pietniczany book collection had no catalog.
The right projection room on the garden side, designated as a salon in 1905, was recently named a study. It seems it was not properly furnished at the time, serving temporarily as a storage for miniatures of kings, queens, and French princes, as well as various tapestries, engravings, vases, and other decorative items, purchased in Paris by Princess Maria Czartoryska.
Between the projection rooms was an elongated dining room, vaulted similarly to others, with oil-painted walls in a golden color, imitating sun rays. A large chandelier of dark bronze hung from the ceiling. Besides the large extendable table and chairs, this room contained a carved glazed cabinet with antique Saxon porcelain, buffets, and side tables. On the walls hung oil portraits of Voivode Marcin Grocholski and his wife Cecylia from the Myszka-Chołoniewski family, both copies of Lampi, as well as starost Michał and starościna Maria from the Śliźniów family, of unspecified authorship.
Both from the corner “study” and the dining room, one could enter the first room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, originally named “Greek,” and before 1917 “gray,” painted in a pearl color. The white ribbed vault was adorned with a large Venetian chandelier.
The furnishings included, alongside a piano, a set of mahogany furniture decorated with marbles and bronzes, a glazed walnut cabinet containing, among other things, silver cups with old coins and several smaller items. The artistic equipment included a Boulle clock, several bronze candlesticks of artistic and historical value, and six miniatures with heads of old men in deep, gilded frames. In the “gray” salon, quite a few paintings were gathered, including portraits: a large one of Antoni Grocholski (1767 – 1805), captain of the national cavalry, depicted sitting in an armchair, girded with the Order of the White Eagle, painted by Angelika Kauffmann; further the Grocholski sword-bearers, sisters of Antoni: Generalowa Tekla Franciszkowa Łaźnińska (1772 – 1797) and Julia Colonel Józefowa Poniatowska (1773 – 1832), both painted by Józef Pitschmann; the Voivodess Salomea from the Grocholski family, primo voto Potocka, secundo voto Dziekońska; Prince Stanisław Chołoniewski; pastel portraits of Maria from the Grocholski family Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska and her sister Helena Janowa Brzozowska, painted in Paris in the 1850s by Tadeusz Grocholski; his own small self-portrait in a large hat with an ostrich feather a la Rembrandt, and finally an ebony easel oil painting depicting an Italian woman with a basket of flowers, also painted by Tadeusz Grocholski.
A similarly sized, also two-window neighboring salon, designated as “Pompeian” in 1905, later named “yellow” after the changed color of the walls, had patterns from Raphael’s stanzas painted on the vaults. Its entire floor was almost entirely covered by a large Turkish carpet. Only in front of the white marble fireplace lay another, smaller one. Above the fireplace, in a white, narrow, plaster frame was an old-fashioned mirror composed of several parts, and on the cornice of the fireplace stood two three-candle, bronze, gilded candelabra. From the center of the vault hung a multi-candle chandelier, also made of gilded bronze. Among the furniture stood out, among others, a low, two-winged mahogany cabinet decorated with bronzes, with a top of pink marble, on which also stood a marble bust of Prince Adam Czartoryski and family photographs. Above the cabinet hung an oil portrait of Bazyli Walicki, Voivode of Rawa, framed in an oval frame. The rest of the “yellow” salon’s furnishings consisted of many antique pieces of furniture, some of which came from the Czartoryski residence in France, from where they arrived in Pietniczany along with other items belonging to Princess Maria from the Grocholski family Czartoryska. The artistic equipment was completed by portraits hanging on both sides of the high mirror set into the wall; on the right side Henryk Grocholski (1802-1866) and his wife Ksawera from the Brzozowski family (1807-1874), and on the left a print depicting Zofia from the Czartoryski family, Stanisławowa Zamoyska (1780 – 1837) with three sons according to François Gérard. On an old easel, covered with a Turkish tablecloth, was placed a portrait of Stanisław Count Grocholski (1835 – 1907), painted on wood by Kazimierz Pochwalski.
In the left projection part of the castle, besides the side staircase, there were still three rooms with varying purposes. One of them recently served as a bedroom. So there stood a large French ebony bed. Above it hung a good copy of the Sistine Madonna and two miniatures depicting Zdzisław and Józefa from the Walicki family Zamoyski.
The second floor had the layout, dimensions, and shape of rooms and halls identical to the first floor, although they were lower. It also had almost entirely residential purposes, both in 1905 and 1917. In the hall hung a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu and a painting depicting a dwarf in a military uniform of the court of Louis XIV (?), and under the ceiling a gallery of portraits of French kings and princes, composed of over 30 images.
Above the “yellow” salon was a library room. Its furnishings mainly consisted of glazed walnut cabinets decorated with bronze fittings, filled with books. The entire Pietniczany book collection numbered about 10,000 volumes.
This room also housed collections of domestic butterflies and moths along with some colorful tropical butterflies, collections of eggs of many domestic birds and nests of Podolian birds, and a collection of minerals gathered from various Polish lands.
In this group was also a crystal cross mounted on a base of Siberian metals, a gift from the Siberians to Ksawera Grocholska, a token of gratitude from exiles for her many years of care over them. This natural history collection was a memento of Henryk Grocholski, who besides it left quite a few valuable publications in this field in various languages. In the library hung several more old family portraits, of smaller format.
The room above the “gray” salon served as the master’s bedroom. It had furnishings in the style of Louis XV and XVI, consisting of: two mahogany beds with bronzes and similar small cabinets and one large one, as well as a desk with a top covered with leather with embossed and gilded edges. Besides that, there was also a sofa, mahogany tables, armchairs, etc. On one of the walls hung a Turkish cloth from Vienna, on another a Buczacz cloth, resembling wide Słuck belts. Against the background of the Buczacz cloth was placed a bronze clock in the style of Louis XVI, and on both sides similar wall sconces. Also, other rooms on the second floor in both projection parts and adjacent to the hall had antique furniture, some richly inlaid or inlaid. In all, there were many bronzes, prints, and oil paintings. The best-equipped rooms in terms of art included: the lady of the house’s dressing room, the master’s playroom, and the armory with a collection of 28 pieces of hunting weapons. In the master’s room, decorated with a large portrait of Maria from the Sołtan family, Zdzisławowa Grocholska, and Henryk and Ksawera from the Brzozowski family Grocholska, was a collection of old weapons, among which stood out: a Turkish saber of Henryk
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Zdzisław Count Grocholski: “Pietniczany”
“Kiev Diary” vol. 3. Published by the Kiev Circle, London 1966. Received courtesy of Mr. Krzysztof Kownacki.
On the border of Poland from the Cossacks and Tatars, along the Dnieper and Boh, stretched a line of watchtowers, established by the borderland population. To this day, Ukraine amazes with its countless ramparts, castles, horodyszcze, and mounds.
On them, constant watches were maintained, day and night, watching from the tops of the watchtowers, barrels covered with tar were lit for this purpose, or warned with royal bells sent from Poland.
Thus life was arranged over the centuries along these routes.
On one of them, Kuczmański, at the mouth of the Winniczek to the Boh, right next to Vinnytsia lies Pietniczany.
It was once a settlement where, before a Tatar or Cossack storm, local residents sought refuge, full of distant dungeons, caves, underground passages, sometimes a quarter of a mile away.
The settlement was closely connected with Vinnytsia, on the ground and underground, it is mentioned very long ago in the inspection by the so-called hospodarski diak Tyszkiewicz that “k’zamku Winnyckomu tiahne”.
Indeed, the two Vinnytsia castles and the Pietniczany castle formed one whole.
The former capital of the Bracław Voivodeship, Vinnytsia, had an old castle from the times of Bohusz Korecki, built on an island between two branches of the picturesque Boh: the castle was surrounded by a defensive rampart, had strong corner towers and bastions with crenellations, equipped with bronze and iron cannons.
The second castle was actually a defensive monastery, erected by Kalinowski, heavily fortified, with walls of wild stone and brick.
Finally, the Pietniczany castle, initially only defensive, later served for fortress purposes, partly for habitation.
Inexhaustible Vinnytsia and Pietniczany walls often repelled hordes and bands.
Haidamak bands also looked here and caused immense devastation.
Finally, the brave hetman Kalinowski drove away that gang. An interesting manifesto from the land writer from those times remains. He reports that in the kacelarji he found neither a pen nor an inkwell, only a lot of honey.
The writer was noble, thinking more about ink than about butter.
Constant skirmishes with the Cossack wilderness severely weakened the fortress until finally Michał from Grabów Grocholski, a valiant soldier, established order here when he succeeded hetman Kalinowski.
In Vinnytsia and Pietniczany he made numerous foundations, and passing Pietniczany to his son Marcin, the future voivode, together with him laid the foundations for the new Pietniczany castle.
Tatar and Cossack prisoners erected the building from monoliths and strengthened it for many years.
Grocholski the voivode finally completed the castle, and being a wealthy lord, he spared no expense to give the building a character of great culture beyond strength.
By then the reign of King Stas Medyceusz had begun. The beauty of the king’s artistic intentions already radiated far beyond the capital.
The Stanisławowski style travels far to the Borderlands. And a whole series of castle-palaces arise on the Styr, Ros, Boh, in a new structure.
Defense, as the main goal, remains in the inexhaustible walls, often in the towers, but ornamentation also marks, whether in rows of columns of Greek order, or in a portico with niches based on columns, or in semicircular galleries connecting the wings of the palace with the main facade.
But what is particularly notable in Pietniczany is the lower and upper vaults. Pointed vaults made of hewn stones or bricks.
A whole series of salons on the upper floor with barrel or cross vaults.
And still extremely interesting paintings.
Already at that time, interiors were painted all over Poland.
Arcadia with Princess Radziwiłłowa gave the beginning, Puławy soon caught the fashion, and then the entire Borderlands with greater or lesser artistry followed the fashion.
Everyone paints. Often masters brought ad hoc, more often the whole family. Both the one who learned and the one who did not know much about drawing.
And the theme? In the Borderlands, of course, some mighty castle, necessarily with towers, some rocks with grottoes and caves, some huge trees or shrubs.
In Pietniczany, the upper salons have very good Pompeian drawing, perfectly toned, especially on the vault and chimneys.
However, the “black room” on the ground floor is more interesting.
In dark half-tones, in semi-darkness, on the walls and vaults mountains, forests, waters black as night.
In the “black room” they deliberated.
They deliberated for a very long time. They deliberated over the good of the country.
King Stanisław August was here, who came from Vinnytsia along the linden avenue planted especially for him, as was Prince Józef Poniatowski.
In the “black room” Stanisław Grocholski, the patriarch of the entire Borderlands, who had “strength in peace,” as Stanisław Tarnowski writes about him, deliberated for a long time.
Thus Pietniczany presented themselves for many years.
They still had valuable archives, a rich library, a gallery of paintings, and many mementos of the past.
Together with Vinnytsia, they were a center of Polish culture in the Borderlands.
The nearby black route did not overcome them. The route that brought black misfortune, murders, looting, fires.
The oppression of the tsars also did not overcome them.
They deported, oppressed, during the uprisings, the owner, but he returned.
Will the current heir Zdzisław Count Grocholski also return?
–
Pietniczany lies at the mouth of the Winniczek River into the Boh, on the so-called “Kuczmański Route” (right next to the city of Vinnytsia). The first mention of this place was found in the description of the Vinnytsia castle from 1543, made by the diak Lew Patejowicz Tyszkowicz. He says, among other things, “… In Petnyczany and in Demydiwciach, in the names of Miśka Stepanowycza stands ten men, whose name Petnyczany was served by his father Stepan to His Lordship for the late Prince Konstantin…”. The second certain news regarding Pietniczany comes from 1569. At that time, Łazarz Deszkowski, son of Bohdan, the Bracław ensign, gave the Pietniczany estate to his uncle Semen, son of Vasyl on Obodne Obodeński. Due to the lack of documents, it has not been established whether the Miśko Stepanowicz mentioned in the first of the cited documents was an ancestor of the Deszkowskis or only the one giving them his rights to Pietniczany.
After the death of Semen Obodeński, who left no offspring, Pietniczany was inherited by the children of his brother Bohdan and Maryna Kierdey-Dziusianka, that is, Hawryło, Teodor, Józef, Vasyl, Anastazja married to Janusz Kierdey-Koziński, and Olena to Michał Myszka-Chołoniewski. Teodor Obodeński, the Bracław hunter, having paid off his brothers and sisters, took over the entire inheritance, henceforth calling himself the lord of Pietniczany. Having married Marusza Pokalewska, he had three daughters with her, of whom Maria married Teodor Łasko-Woronowicki, bringing him Pietniczany as a dowry. Of their six children, five died childless, and the only surviving daughter Teofila gave her hand along with the vast fortune, which also included Pietniczany, to Michał Luba from Radzimin Radzimiński. He was the head of the Bracław line of his family. From Teofila Łasko’s daughter, he left numerous offspring, of which Michał, the Bracław stolnik, bought or inherited from the remaining heirs all parts of the Bracław estates, thus reuniting the entire fortune in his hand.
Michał Radzimiński had with Małgorzata from Kamieńskis also quite a few, because five children. Of them, two sons and a daughter died childless. Pietniczany, as well as Sabarów, Soroczyn, Woronowica, and Stepanówka, were inherited by the second daughter, Anna, bringing them as a dowry to her husband Michał from Grabów Grocholski. Born in 1705, Michał Grocholski h. Syrokomla first served in the pancerny banner of Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki, the Kraków castellan, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. Then as the regiment commander of the Ukrainian and Volhynian party, he fought against enemy invasions, for which King Augustus III appointed him his captain. He also twice served as an envoy to the Sejm, and in the office of the Bracław voivodeship land judge, he became known as an excellent lawyer. From his father, besides sums placed on several estates, Michał Grocholski did not inherit any personal property. However, he managed his wife’s estates so well that he soon significantly increased them.
He contributed to the Polish society of the Ruthenian lands by founding a church and monastery of the Dominican Fathers in Vinnytsia in 1760, as well as adorning the existing Jesuit church in this city with several altars and a pulpit. In one of his estates – Tereszki, he also erected a chapel.
In Pietniczany itself, together with his son Marcin, Michał Grocholski raised the framework of a new castle-palace, employing Tatar and Turkish prisoners for its construction. It was to be a fortress with extremely massive walls, with iron bars in the windows, towers, loopholes, and a double gate.
Thus a square fortress was formed, adapted for habitation and at the same time for repelling a possible attack. For now, it was one-story, with two-story towers in the corners. On two sides of the castle, not far from it, stood further square, one-story towers. From them, moats and ramparts extended, surrounding an oval fortress square several hundred meters long. These fortifications were closed by a vaulted entrance gate, with two rooms adjoining it. At the turn of the moat and ramparts, there stood another, small, cylindrical one-story tower.
Michał Grocholski (died in 1765) also had numerous offspring, five daughters and two sons. In the family division made in 1771, the younger Franciszek received after his parents Tereszki and Malinki, which fell to the Grocholski family from the Ostrog ordination, further Woronowica, Stepanówka, and Soroczyn, as well as Komarów and Michałówka, or Kostkopol, acquired from the heirs of Adam Olizar, the Trościaniec key bought from Stanisław Szandyrowski and others, partial owners, Łataniec bought from Prince Kajetan Rościszewski, as well as the manor in Dubno and half of the life estate on the Zozów key. The elder son Marcin (1727 – 1807), the last Bracław voivode, the starost of Szerokogrobelski and Kruszliniecki, married first to Cecylia Myszka-Chołoniewska, and in later life to Antonina Gałecka, primo voto Łoska, an envoy to the Sejm, a supporter of King Stanisław August and the Constitution of May 3, took the Hryców key with a series of manors, where he erected a new palace, Strzyżawka acquired by Michał Grocholski from Antoni Potocki, Desna, or Michałówka with Kołomyjówka, Ławrówka, Prehórka, Stadnica, and finally Pietniczany itself, as well as the manor in Vinnytsia, as well as the second half of the life estate on the Zozów key, a manor in Lviv, etc. Each of Michał Grocholski’s five daughters received a dowry of 60,000 złp. The entire estate he left behind was therefore very significant.
Voivode Marcin Grocholski lived most willingly in his new palace in Hryców, less often in Pietniczany. He did not increase the considerable estate inherited from his father. After his death, these goods were further fragmented. By virtue of the division made by the voivode during his lifetime in 1792, they were divided among five sons born from the first marriage: Jan, the Crown Standard-Bearer, Michał, the Zwinogród Starost, Mikołaj, the Podolian Governor, and Ludwik. The second son Adam did not inherit the patrimony because he fell at Maciejowice. Pietniczany fell to Michał Grocholski (1765 – 1833), married to Maria Śliźniówna. They settled in the Pietniczany castle immediately after the wedding, and it was during their time that it underwent the first fundamental transformations. The inspiration for all the changes was the energetic lady starościna. Raised in the spirit of the “Stanisławowski era,” she felt uncomfortable in the austere walls of the fortified castle. Therefore, wanting to at least decorate her apartments, she first ordered all the rooms to be repainted. The walls of the salon then held a blue color, and under its vault, satin draperies in white and blue stripes, imitating a tent, were hung. One of the corner rooms was decorated with green draperies, and another was painted in a sandy tone.
The reconstruction of the castle, initiated by the energetic lady starościna, was not limited to the interiors. It was at her initiative that the entire building was raised one more floor and received two side pavilions. In the garden, there was formerly an old-fashioned oak magazine, whose bins were intended for guests when a larger gathering occurred. In view of the reconstruction of the castle into a palace and the construction of new pavilions, it was moved to another location as no longer needed. At that time, new stables, carriage houses, workshops, a dovecote, and other farm buildings were also built. These works were directed by the architect Laeufer, previously active in Janów at the Chołoniewski family.
Michał and Maria from the Źliźniów Grocholscy had a daughter Maria married to Henryk Count Rzewuski, a known writer, and a son Henryk Cyprian (1802 – 1866), who in 1829 married Franciszka Ksawera Brzozowska h. Belina (1807 – 1872), daughter of Karol and Ksawera Trzecieska h. Strzemię, a future memoirist. After his father, he inherited Pietniczany and Strzyżawka. He also completed the reconstruction of the castle, adding a portico with a balcony on the garden side. Inside, he transformed the staircase and directed painting works in finishing the room decorations. The task of decorating the castle rooms with paintings was undertaken independently by a painter named Rzewicki, but as it later turned out, he had too high an opinion of his talent and failed the hopes placed in him. As a result of the not very successful decoration of the antechamber made by Rzewicki, Henryk Grocholski then agreed to personally arrange the patterns of the paintings, based on motifs taken from albums containing sketches of the most beautiful ancient and modern frescoes. The compositions arranged by the owner of Pietniczany were faithfully executed by Rzewicki from then on. All the projects of alterations made during the time of Henryk and Franciszka Ksawera Grocholscy were developed by an architect abroad.
After Henryk, Pietniczany fell to his elder son Stanisław Wincenty (1835 – 1907), married to Wanda Count Zamoyska (1846 – 1922), daughter of Zdzisław and Józefa Walicka h. Łada. The last owner was their son Zdzisław Count Grocholski (1881 – 1968), married since 1910 to Maria Sołtan h. Syrokomla odm. (1881 – 1963), daughter of Bohdan and Maria Franciszka Sołtan. From the mid-19th century until the destruction of the Pietniczany castle, it did not undergo major changes.
Despite its classicist reconstruction and the addition of side pavilions, the main body of the palace complex retained its original, austere shape of a castle and also bore its name to the end; Pietniczany Castle. It had a rectangular plan, but very close to a square, and three stories: a vaulted, relatively low ground floor, above it a much higher, also vaulted, serving as the piano nobile first floor, and the later added second floor, already with flat ceilings. Both the symmetrical front elevation of the castle with six widely spaced axes and the garden elevation on the extreme axes were accented by corner projections closed with triangular, bracketed, smooth pediments. The ground floor of the castle, with elevations entirely rusticated, was equipped with relatively small, rectangular, six-pane windows, framed in wide, profiled surrounds, closed with horizontal pediments on consoles. Separated from the ground floor by a narrow cornice, the first floor had windows of the same width, but two panes higher than the lower ones, with triangular pediment tops, also on consoles. The second floor’s windows, similar in shape and size to the ground floor’s, received identical framing but without any pediments. The decoration of both side elevations was similar to the longer elevations, but the four window openings were spaced so that the two central ones formed a pair, while the two outer ones were set much further apart. All the smoothly plastered elevations were closed by a wide triglyph frieze, with a row of brackets and a profiled cornice above. Already during the first expansion, both projections of the front facade were connected by a gallery composed of six Tuscan columns without bases, supporting the upper gallery along its entire length, enclosed by a beautiful wrought iron balustrade with both vertical and plant grotesque motifs. The two central columns were eventually enclosed with glazed doors. A small vestibule was thus formed. The garden gallery was created by eight more massive columns, tapering towards the top, placed on a low stone terrace, also without bases. The upper gallery was laid with black and white marble tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The main motif of the garden balustrade was partially overlapping ovals. The main body of the castle was covered by a fairly high, smooth hipped roof, distinguished above the projections, with four massive, plastered chimneys spaced evenly.
The quarter-circle, residential, also partially vaulted galleries connected the castle with the later built, opposite pavilions, forming a large horseshoe. On the front courtyard side, the gallery with some blind windows had elevations entirely covered with rustication. The window openings framed in surrounds were topped with horizontal pediments on consoles. Each gallery was preceded by twelve columns, along with the residential garden section covered with a smooth gabled roof, with three massive chimneys. Initially, the roof rested directly on the column capitals, but later a beam was added under it and decorated with a triglyph frieze.
A different appearance was given to the garden side of the gallery. The left was covered with smooth plasters, enlivened only by wide, profiled surrounds of rectangular, low-set windows or doors. The right, housing part of the representative rooms, also with smooth plasters, received a richer decoration. Between the rectangular windows or double porte-fenetres in the Serlian type, wall-attached half-columns were placed. At the curve of the central arch, two hemispherically vaulted niches were also placed, probably intended for statues.
Two identical in shape, two-story pavilions with high basements, three-axis on the courtyard and garden side, and two-axis on the side, with a plan almost of a perfect square, also had identical external decoration. Their plaster on the ground floor was entirely rusticated. On the upper floor, rustication was used only as vertical bands covering the corners and distinguishing the central axes with false projections. The windows on the lower floor were topped with pediments on consoles, on the upper floor they had no pediments. The floors were horizontally divided by a narrow cornice, and the elevations were topped by a much wider, profiled one.
The Pietniczany castle is one of the very few residences in the eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose interior layout gained detailed documentation while it was still inhabited by the owners. In 1905, measurements were made of all the floors of the main body, as well as both pavilions and galleries. Unfortunately, this documentation is only minimally supplemented by photographs, mostly based on information from the last owner. Not in all cases was the purpose of individual rooms and halls the same in 1905 and 1917. Not all were described either. However, it is certain that they had smooth walls in solid colors or painted in various compositions, oak parquet floors laid in a geometric pattern, two-wing paneled doors lacquered white, and similar window joinery, most often high, round stoves with a cornice at the top, and not very numerous fireplaces.
From the vestibule enclosed by the frames of two columns, through the stone-framed door, one entered a windowless hall. Massive, oak, two-wing doors, covered with half-centimeter thick iron sheet, decorated with narrow, diagonal, intersecting strips, were pierced at chest height by two round loopholes. On the inside of the door hung an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. From this side, they were closed with three powerful, oak bolts. Since the hall was windowless, a second pair of oak doors with two panes secured by grilles with the Syrokomla coat of arms was installed. The hall had a barrel vault, whitewashed. A large, wrought iron decorative lantern hung from it. The walls were maintained in a sandy tone. Shallow fluting divided them into large rectangles. The movable furnishings consisted of a table with a top one meter wide and 10 cm thick, made from a single board, coat hangers, and the so-called “barrier,” or bed for the duty Cossack. Above the table hung an interesting and valuable plan of the Pietniczany key from 1740, intricately crafted, with Polish and Latin inscriptions: “The boundary between the lands of the Honorable Grocholski family, and the town of His Royal Majesty Vinnytsia,” and above the barrier an old-fashioned elongated mirror, composed of three panes, framed in gilded, patinated frames. The decoration of this room was complemented by a few hunting trophies and annually changed harvest wreaths.
Adjacent to the entrance hall on its left side was a second hall, recently called the “hunting” hall, and on the 1905 plan simply the antechamber. It had a ribbed, whitewashed vault, with a wrought lantern, oil-painted walls, and a stone floor.
There stood a high, round stove made of granite stones, covered with whitewashed cloth, a brick fireplace, a wooden bench, a chest the height of a table with wood for kindling, and a row of chairs with octagonal backs and Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. On the walls hung stuffed heads of deer, fallow deer, and wild boar. In this room, hunters gathered directly after the hunt for tea.
The doors on the left side of the “hunting” hall led to a corner guest room, vaulted similarly and with walls painted also in a smooth light color. The furnishings consisted of then-modern, comfortable furniture, but without a definite style. The greatest decoration of this room was an old painting of the Madonna and Child, of the Italian school. Various residents lived here, sometimes staying in Pietniczany for many years.
The “hunting” hall also connected directly with the room designated in 1905 as the library, recently called the “black” room, with two windows overlooking the garden terrace. It was rib-vaulted. All its walls were covered with romantic-style paintings, executed al fresco by artists, Napoleonic emigrants, imitating rocks, trees, shrubs, a stream with a waterfall, and there was also a medieval castle on a high mountain. Precisely because of these paintings and the low-lying arches of the vault, there were no pictures in the “black” room. Only above the entrance to the corner room called both in 1905 and 1917 “Arab,” hung a sultan’s signature, framed in a narrow gilded frame, and above a large couch covered with kilims – a large stuffed owl sitting on a branch. In one of the corners stood a round stove. The entire oak plank floor was constantly covered with a thick Persian carpet.
The center of the “black” room was occupied by a large, square table of black oak with thick, carved legs, covered with a kilim. On it stood a lamp made of gilded bronze in the shape of an Ionic column. The chairs of walnut wood were also upholstered with kilims. The black marble fireplace was so large that its cornice was at shoulder height of a tall man warming himself by it. On the cornice, on the sides stood three-candle bronze candelabra, with figures of Egyptians holding candlesticks on their shoulders or heads.
Closer to the center were two other bronze candlesticks with wide pedestals, in the middle an old-fashioned clock, also in a bronze frame. Above the fireplace, along its entire width, was set into the wall a mirror composed of three parts, about half a meter high, without any frames. In the spacious hearth of the fireplace, entire huge logs easily fit. A two-wing walnut screen, decorated in the upper part with views of the desert and Arabs with camels, painted on canvas by Maria Hieronimowa Sobańska and Princess Stefania Korybut-Woroniecka, protected those sitting around from excessive heat. Under the window stood a mahogany desk with bronze decorations, covered with a Turkish tablecloth. The further furnishings of the room were comfortable, but newer sofas, also decorated with bronzes. The equipment was completed by a piano, harmonium, and several armchairs and chairs not belonging to the set, while on the sides of the sofas were small bookcases, also with bronze applications. Various family celebrations took place in the “black” room. A Christmas tree for the children of officials and servants was also arranged there.
Of the two rooms adjacent to the “black” room on the left side, the already mentioned corner “Arab” room had walls decorated with several Arabic inscriptions, verses from the Koran. There were comfortable sofas and a round table of black wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, covered with an eastern tablecloth. On the table lay the Gospel in an Arabic edition from around 1720, bound in parchment skin. The adjacent “Turkish” room looked similar, directly connecting with the gallery, designated as a guest room in 1905. Both were painted and furnished by Maria from the Grocholski family, Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska, later a Discalced Carmelite, who traveled a lot with her husband in the Middle East and knew the Arabic language.
On the right from the central hall was another hall, always called the service hall, vaulted similarly to the “hunting” hall, with dark wooden bench-chests and oak chairs, on the backs of which also appeared Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. The right corner projection room often changed its purpose. At the time of measurement, it was named the “writer’s room.” On the right side, partially adjacent to the “service” hall was also a fairly large room serving as a pantry. Its main piece of furniture was a huge, multi-winged cabinet containing family silver, porcelain, and table linen, accumulated over five generations of the Grocholski family. The right garden corner room, the equivalent of the “Arab” room on the opposite end, served as a pantry but was also called “over the cellars.” From there, spiral stairs led to the castle cellars and underground corridors, extending far under the garden, but partially already collapsed.
From the “service” hall, straight ahead, one entered the second two-window room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, identical in dimensions to the “black” room on its left side, also rib-vaulted, with a round stove in the corner, serving as a home chapel. It had blue-toned walls and simple furnishings. In the altar hung a large painting of Our Lady, under it a gilded crucifix of Byzantine shapes with a reliquary in the middle, and around it engravings depicting the Stations of the Cross.
In the left, projection part of the castle, between the middle “Turkish” room and the front guest room, were side stairs leading both up and down to the cellars. The grand staircase, illuminated by two large wrought iron lanterns, with wide oak steps leading to the upper floor, was located directly opposite the main entrance hall. On its walls hung family portraits, mostly of the “Sarmatian” type, and opposite the central turn a large mirror, above it a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski in his youth, painted in a red uniform.
On the first floor, the central part of the front tract was occupied by a square hall, also called the “room over the stairs,” equipped with a stone slab floor covered with Turkish carpets. On an oak table stood a bronze fragment of “The March to Wawel” by Wacław Szymanowski, depicting Stefan Batory, Hetman Jan Zamoyski, and a group of winged knights.
On the walls hung two portraits: Jan Zamoyski in a red delia and with a baton in hand, and Colonel Remigian Grocholski (1643 – 1705), a participant in the Vienna relief, depicted in armor and with a mace. It was a copy of an original from the era, kept in the Tuchów church.
Two rooms, one on the left, the other on the right side of the hall, were marked as antechambers on the 1905 plan. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the right wing served as a billiard room for the youth. Both its vault and walls were painted with patterned oil paint. From the ceiling hung a chandelier of cast brass, decorated with eagles and one large Polish eagle in a crown. Along the walls of this room stood walnut cabinets on four legs, decorated with white marble tiles. In the middle of the single-wing doors was Diana with a bow and dog. These cabinets contained bound volumes of illustrated magazines. There was also a large table with a white marble top and carved mahogany chairs. Several paintings of the Dutch school hung here, as well as a battle painting with a knight galloping on a white horse against the backdrop of fires – a painting depicting the plundering of the Temple of Sibyl in Puławy by Russian soldiers, and a portrait of King Stanisław August, sitting at a table and resting his hand on an hourglass, depicted without a wig, in French attire, a copy or replica of an original by Bacciarelli.
The front, right, projection corner room, rib-vaulted and painted al fresco by Tadeusz Grocholski, was named the “heraldic salon.” In the center of its ceiling, the artist presented the family coat of arms Syrokomla, and in the corners, in medallions, the coats of arms of houses with which the Grocholski family was more closely related through marriages. This room housed library cabinets containing the most valuable and oldest part of the castle’s book collection, as well as illustrated magazines in Polish, French, and English, of more recent date. The rest of the library was scattered in various other rooms. The Pietniczany book collection had no catalog.
The right projection room on the garden side, designated as a salon in 1905, was recently named a study. It seems it was not properly furnished at the time, serving temporarily as a storage for miniatures of kings, queens, and French princes, as well as various tapestries, engravings, vases, and other decorative items, purchased in Paris by Princess Maria Czartoryska.
Between the projection rooms was an elongated dining room, vaulted similarly to others, with oil-painted walls in a golden color, imitating sun rays. A large chandelier of dark bronze hung from the ceiling. Besides the large extendable table and chairs, this room contained a carved glazed cabinet with antique Saxon porcelain, buffets, and side tables. On the walls hung oil portraits of Voivode Marcin Grocholski and his wife Cecylia from the Myszka-Chołoniewski family, both copies of Lampi, as well as starost Michał and starościna Maria from the Śliźniów family, of unspecified authorship.
Both from the corner “study” and the dining room, one could enter the first room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, originally named “Greek,” and before 1917 “gray,” painted in a pearl color. The white ribbed vault was adorned with a large Venetian chandelier.
The furnishings included, alongside a piano, a set of mahogany furniture decorated with marbles and bronzes, a glazed walnut cabinet containing, among other things, silver cups with old coins and several smaller items. The artistic equipment included a Boulle clock, several bronze candlesticks of artistic and historical value, and six miniatures with heads of old men in deep, gilded frames. In the “gray” salon, quite a few paintings were gathered, including portraits: a large one of Antoni Grocholski (1767 – 1805), captain of the national cavalry, depicted sitting in an armchair, girded with the Order of the White Eagle, painted by Angelika Kauffmann; further the Grocholski sword-bearers, sisters of Antoni: Generalowa Tekla Franciszkowa Łaźnińska (1772 – 1797) and Julia Colonel Józefowa Poniatowska (1773 – 1832), both painted by Józef Pitschmann; the Voivodess Salomea from the Grocholski family, primo voto Potocka, secundo voto Dziekońska; Prince Stanisław Chołoniewski; pastel portraits of Maria from the Grocholski family Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska and her sister Helena Janowa Brzozowska, painted in Paris in the 1850s by Tadeusz Grocholski; his own small self-portrait in a large hat with an ostrich feather a la Rembrandt, and finally an ebony easel oil painting depicting an Italian woman with a basket of flowers, also painted by Tadeusz Grocholski.
A similarly sized, also two-window neighboring salon, designated as “Pompeian” in 1905, later named “yellow” after the changed color of the walls, had patterns from Raphael’s stanzas painted on the vaults. Its entire floor was almost entirely covered by a large Turkish carpet. Only in front of the white marble fireplace lay another, smaller one. Above the fireplace, in a white, narrow, plaster frame was an old-fashioned mirror composed of several parts, and on the cornice of the fireplace stood two three-candle, bronze, gilded candelabra. From the center of the vault hung a multi-candle chandelier, also made of gilded bronze. Among the furniture stood out, among others, a low, two-winged mahogany cabinet decorated with bronzes, with a top of pink marble, on which also stood a marble bust of Prince Adam Czartoryski and family photographs. Above the cabinet hung an oil portrait of Bazyli Walicki, Voivode of Rawa, framed in an oval frame. The rest of the “yellow” salon’s furnishings consisted of many antique pieces of furniture, some of which came from the Czartoryski residence in France, from where they arrived in Pietniczany along with other items belonging to Princess Maria from the Grocholski family Czartoryska. The artistic equipment was completed by portraits hanging on both sides of the high mirror set into the wall; on the right side Henryk Grocholski (1802-1866) and his wife Ksawera from the Brzozowski family (1807-1874), and on the left a print depicting Zofia from the Czartoryski family, Stanisławowa Zamoyska (1780 – 1837) with three sons according to François Gérard. On an old easel, covered with a Turkish tablecloth, was placed a portrait of Stanisław Count Grocholski (1835 – 1907), painted on wood by Kazimierz Pochwalski.
In the left projection part of the castle, besides the side staircase, there were still three rooms with varying purposes. One of them recently served as a bedroom. So there stood a large French ebony bed. Above it hung a good copy of the Sistine Madonna and two miniatures depicting Zdzisław and Józefa from the Walicki family Zamoyski.
The second floor had the layout, dimensions, and shape of rooms and halls identical to the first floor, although they were lower. It also had almost entirely residential purposes, both in 1905 and 1917. In the hall hung a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu and a painting depicting a dwarf in a military uniform of the court of Louis XIV (?), and under the ceiling a gallery of portraits of French kings and princes, composed of over 30 images.
Above the “yellow” salon was a library room. Its furnishings mainly consisted of glazed walnut cabinets decorated with bronze fittings, filled with books. The entire Pietniczany book collection numbered about 10,000 volumes.
This room also housed collections of domestic butterflies and moths along with some colorful tropical butterflies, collections of eggs of many domestic birds and nests of Podolian birds, and a collection of minerals gathered from various Polish lands.
In this group was also a crystal cross mounted on a base of Siberian metals, a gift from the Siberians to Ksawera Grocholska, a token of gratitude from exiles for her many years of care over them. This natural history collection was a memento of Henryk Grocholski, who besides it left quite a few valuable publications in this field in various languages. In the library hung several more old family portraits, of smaller format.
The room above the “gray” salon served as the master’s bedroom. It had furnishings in the style of Louis XV and XVI, consisting of: two mahogany beds with bronzes and similar small cabinets and one large one, as well as a desk with a top covered with leather with embossed and gilded edges. Besides that, there was also a sofa, mahogany tables, armchairs, etc. On one of the walls hung a Turkish cloth from Vienna, on another a Buczacz cloth, resembling wide Słuck belts. Against the background of the Buczacz cloth was placed a bronze clock in the style of Louis XVI, and on both sides similar wall sconces. Also, other rooms on the second floor in both projection parts and adjacent to the hall had antique furniture, some richly inlaid or inlaid. In all, there were many bronzes, prints, and oil paintings. The best-equipped rooms in terms of art included: the lady of the house’s dressing room, the master’s playroom, and the armory with a collection of 28 pieces of hunting weapons. In the master’s room, decorated with a large portrait of Maria from the Sołtan family, Zdzisławowa Grocholska, and Henryk and Ksawera from the Brzozowski family Grocholska, was a collection of old weapons, among which stood out: a Turkish saber of Henryk
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Zdzisław Count Grocholski: “Pietniczany”
“Kiev Diary” vol. 3. Published by the Kiev Circle, London 1966. Received courtesy of Mr. Krzysztof Kownacki.
On the border of Poland from the Cossacks and Tatars, along the Dnieper and Boh, stretched a line of watchtowers, established by the borderland population. To this day, Ukraine amazes with its countless ramparts, castles, horodyszcze, and mounds.
On them, constant watches were maintained, day and night, watching from the tops of the watchtowers, barrels covered with tar were lit for this purpose, or warned with royal bells sent from Poland.
Thus life was arranged over the centuries along these routes.
On one of them, Kuczmański, at the mouth of the Winniczek to the Boh, right next to Vinnytsia lies Pietniczany.
It was once a settlement where, before a Tatar or Cossack storm, local residents sought refuge, full of distant dungeons, caves, underground passages, sometimes a quarter of a mile away.
The settlement was closely connected with Vinnytsia, on the ground and underground, it is mentioned very long ago in the inspection by the so-called hospodarski diak Tyszkiewicz that “k’zamku Winnyckomu tiahne”.
Indeed, the two Vinnytsia castles and the Pietniczany castle formed one whole.
The former capital of the Bracław Voivodeship, Vinnytsia, had an old castle from the times of Bohusz Korecki, built on an island between two branches of the picturesque Boh: the castle was surrounded by a defensive rampart, had strong corner towers and bastions with crenellations, equipped with bronze and iron cannons.
The second castle was actually a defensive monastery, erected by Kalinowski, heavily fortified, with walls of wild stone and brick.
Finally, the Pietniczany castle, initially only defensive, later served for fortress purposes, partly for habitation.
Inexhaustible Vinnytsia and Pietniczany walls often repelled hordes and bands.
Haidamak bands also looked here and caused immense devastation.
Finally, the brave hetman Kalinowski drove away that gang. An interesting manifesto from the land writer from those times remains. He reports that in the kacelarji he found neither a pen nor an inkwell, only a lot of honey.
The writer was noble, thinking more about ink than about butter.
Constant skirmishes with the Cossack wilderness severely weakened the fortress until finally Michał from Grabów Grocholski, a valiant soldier, established order here when he succeeded hetman Kalinowski.
In Vinnytsia and Pietniczany he made numerous foundations, and passing Pietniczany to his son Marcin, the future voivode, together with him laid the foundations for the new Pietniczany castle.
Tatar and Cossack prisoners erected the building from monoliths and strengthened it for many years.
Grocholski the voivode finally completed the castle, and being a wealthy lord, he spared no expense to give the building a character of great culture beyond strength.
By then the reign of King Stas Medyceusz had begun. The beauty of the king’s artistic intentions already radiated far beyond the capital.
The Stanisławowski style travels far to the Borderlands. And a whole series of castle-palaces arise on the Styr, Ros, Boh, in a new structure.
Defense, as the main goal, remains in the inexhaustible walls, often in the towers, but ornamentation also marks, whether in rows of columns of Greek order, or in a portico with niches based on columns, or in semicircular galleries connecting the wings of the palace with the main facade.
But what is particularly notable in Pietniczany is the lower and upper vaults. Pointed vaults made of hewn stones or bricks.
A whole series of salons on the upper floor with barrel or cross vaults.
And still extremely interesting paintings.
Already at that time, interiors were painted all over Poland.
Arcadia with Princess Radziwiłłowa gave the beginning, Puławy soon caught the fashion, and then the entire Borderlands with greater or lesser artistry followed the fashion.
Everyone paints. Often masters brought ad hoc, more often the whole family. Both the one who learned and the one who did not know much about drawing.
And the theme? In the Borderlands, of course, some mighty castle, necessarily with towers, some rocks with grottoes and caves, some huge trees or shrubs.
In Pietniczany, the upper salons have very good Pompeian drawing, perfectly toned, especially on the vault and chimneys.
However, the “black room” on the ground floor is more interesting.
In dark half-tones, in semi-darkness, on the walls and vaults mountains, forests, waters black as night.
In the “black room” they deliberated.
They deliberated for a very long time. They deliberated over the good of the country.
King Stanisław August was here, who came from Vinnytsia along the linden avenue planted especially for him, as was Prince Józef Poniatowski.
In the “black room” Stanisław Grocholski, the patriarch of the entire Borderlands, who had “strength in peace,” as Stanisław Tarnowski writes about him, deliberated for a long time.
Thus Pietniczany presented themselves for many years.
They still had valuable archives, a rich library, a gallery of paintings, and many mementos of the past.
Together with Vinnytsia, they were a center of Polish culture in the Borderlands.
The nearby black route did not overcome them. The route that brought black misfortune, murders, looting, fires.
The oppression of the tsars also did not overcome them.
They deported, oppressed, during the uprisings, the owner, but he returned.
Will the current heir Zdzisław Count Grocholski also return?
–
Pietniczany lies at the mouth of the Winniczek River into the Boh, on the so-called “Kuczmański Route” (right next to the city of Vinnytsia). The first mention of this place was found in the description of the Vinnytsia castle from 1543, made by the diak Lew Patejowicz Tyszkowicz. He says, among other things, “… In Petnyczany and in Demydiwciach, in the names of Miśka Stepanowycza stands ten men, whose name Petnyczany was served by his father Stepan to His Lordship for the late Prince Konstantin…”. The second certain news regarding Pietniczany comes from 1569. At that time, Łazarz Deszkowski, son of Bohdan, the Bracław ensign, gave the Pietniczany estate to his uncle Semen, son of Vasyl on Obodne Obodeński. Due to the lack of documents, it has not been established whether the Miśko Stepanowicz mentioned in the first of the cited documents was an ancestor of the Deszkowskis or only the one giving them his rights to Pietniczany.
After the death of Semen Obodeński, who left no offspring, Pietniczany was inherited by the children of his brother Bohdan and Maryna Kierdey-Dziusianka, that is, Hawryło, Teodor, Józef, Vasyl, Anastazja married to Janusz Kierdey-Koziński, and Olena to Michał Myszka-Chołoniewski. Teodor Obodeński, the Bracław hunter, having paid off his brothers and sisters, took over the entire inheritance, henceforth calling himself the lord of Pietniczany. Having married Marusza Pokalewska, he had three daughters with her, of whom Maria married Teodor Łasko-Woronowicki, bringing him Pietniczany as a dowry. Of their six children, five died childless, and the only surviving daughter Teofila gave her hand along with the vast fortune, which also included Pietniczany, to Michał Luba from Radzimin Radzimiński. He was the head of the Bracław line of his family. From Teofila Łasko’s daughter, he left numerous offspring, of which Michał, the Bracław stolnik, bought or inherited from the remaining heirs all parts of the Bracław estates, thus reuniting the entire fortune in his hand.
Michał Radzimiński had with Małgorzata from Kamieńskis also quite a few, because five children. Of them, two sons and a daughter died childless. Pietniczany, as well as Sabarów, Soroczyn, Woronowica, and Stepanówka, were inherited by the second daughter, Anna, bringing them as a dowry to her husband Michał from Grabów Grocholski. Born in 1705, Michał Grocholski h. Syrokomla first served in the pancerny banner of Prince Janusz Wiśniowiecki, the Kraków castellan, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant. Then as the regiment commander of the Ukrainian and Volhynian party, he fought against enemy invasions, for which King Augustus III appointed him his captain. He also twice served as an envoy to the Sejm, and in the office of the Bracław voivodeship land judge, he became known as an excellent lawyer. From his father, besides sums placed on several estates, Michał Grocholski did not inherit any personal property. However, he managed his wife’s estates so well that he soon significantly increased them.
He contributed to the Polish society of the Ruthenian lands by founding a church and monastery of the Dominican Fathers in Vinnytsia in 1760, as well as adorning the existing Jesuit church in this city with several altars and a pulpit. In one of his estates – Tereszki, he also erected a chapel.
In Pietniczany itself, together with his son Marcin, Michał Grocholski raised the framework of a new castle-palace, employing Tatar and Turkish prisoners for its construction. It was to be a fortress with extremely massive walls, with iron bars in the windows, towers, loopholes, and a double gate.
Thus a square fortress was formed, adapted for habitation and at the same time for repelling a possible attack. For now, it was one-story, with two-story towers in the corners. On two sides of the castle, not far from it, stood further square, one-story towers. From them, moats and ramparts extended, surrounding an oval fortress square several hundred meters long. These fortifications were closed by a vaulted entrance gate, with two rooms adjoining it. At the turn of the moat and ramparts, there stood another, small, cylindrical one-story tower.
Michał Grocholski (died in 1765) also had numerous offspring, five daughters and two sons. In the family division made in 1771, the younger Franciszek received after his parents Tereszki and Malinki, which fell to the Grocholski family from the Ostrog ordination, further Woronowica, Stepanówka, and Soroczyn, as well as Komarów and Michałówka, or Kostkopol, acquired from the heirs of Adam Olizar, the Trościaniec key bought from Stanisław Szandyrowski and others, partial owners, Łataniec bought from Prince Kajetan Rościszewski, as well as the manor in Dubno and half of the life estate on the Zozów key. The elder son Marcin (1727 – 1807), the last Bracław voivode, the starost of Szerokogrobelski and Kruszliniecki, married first to Cecylia Myszka-Chołoniewska, and in later life to Antonina Gałecka, primo voto Łoska, an envoy to the Sejm, a supporter of King Stanisław August and the Constitution of May 3, took the Hryców key with a series of manors, where he erected a new palace, Strzyżawka acquired by Michał Grocholski from Antoni Potocki, Desna, or Michałówka with Kołomyjówka, Ławrówka, Prehórka, Stadnica, and finally Pietniczany itself, as well as the manor in Vinnytsia, as well as the second half of the life estate on the Zozów key, a manor in Lviv, etc. Each of Michał Grocholski’s five daughters received a dowry of 60,000 złp. The entire estate he left behind was therefore very significant.
Voivode Marcin Grocholski lived most willingly in his new palace in Hryców, less often in Pietniczany. He did not increase the considerable estate inherited from his father. After his death, these goods were further fragmented. By virtue of the division made by the voivode during his lifetime in 1792, they were divided among five sons born from the first marriage: Jan, the Crown Standard-Bearer, Michał, the Zwinogród Starost, Mikołaj, the Podolian Governor, and Ludwik. The second son Adam did not inherit the patrimony because he fell at Maciejowice. Pietniczany fell to Michał Grocholski (1765 – 1833), married to Maria Śliźniówna. They settled in the Pietniczany castle immediately after the wedding, and it was during their time that it underwent the first fundamental transformations. The inspiration for all the changes was the energetic lady starościna. Raised in the spirit of the “Stanisławowski era,” she felt uncomfortable in the austere walls of the fortified castle. Therefore, wanting to at least decorate her apartments, she first ordered all the rooms to be repainted. The walls of the salon then held a blue color, and under its vault, satin draperies in white and blue stripes, imitating a tent, were hung. One of the corner rooms was decorated with green draperies, and another was painted in a sandy tone.
The reconstruction of the castle, initiated by the energetic lady starościna, was not limited to the interiors. It was at her initiative that the entire building was raised one more floor and received two side pavilions. In the garden, there was formerly an old-fashioned oak magazine, whose bins were intended for guests when a larger gathering occurred. In view of the reconstruction of the castle into a palace and the construction of new pavilions, it was moved to another location as no longer needed. At that time, new stables, carriage houses, workshops, a dovecote, and other farm buildings were also built. These works were directed by the architect Laeufer, previously active in Janów at the Chołoniewski family.
Michał and Maria from the Źliźniów Grocholscy had a daughter Maria married to Henryk Count Rzewuski, a known writer, and a son Henryk Cyprian (1802 – 1866), who in 1829 married Franciszka Ksawera Brzozowska h. Belina (1807 – 1872), daughter of Karol and Ksawera Trzecieska h. Strzemię, a future memoirist. After his father, he inherited Pietniczany and Strzyżawka. He also completed the reconstruction of the castle, adding a portico with a balcony on the garden side. Inside, he transformed the staircase and directed painting works in finishing the room decorations. The task of decorating the castle rooms with paintings was undertaken independently by a painter named Rzewicki, but as it later turned out, he had too high an opinion of his talent and failed the hopes placed in him. As a result of the not very successful decoration of the antechamber made by Rzewicki, Henryk Grocholski then agreed to personally arrange the patterns of the paintings, based on motifs taken from albums containing sketches of the most beautiful ancient and modern frescoes. The compositions arranged by the owner of Pietniczany were faithfully executed by Rzewicki from then on. All the projects of alterations made during the time of Henryk and Franciszka Ksawera Grocholscy were developed by an architect abroad.
After Henryk, Pietniczany fell to his elder son Stanisław Wincenty (1835 – 1907), married to Wanda Count Zamoyska (1846 – 1922), daughter of Zdzisław and Józefa Walicka h. Łada. The last owner was their son Zdzisław Count Grocholski (1881 – 1968), married since 1910 to Maria Sołtan h. Syrokomla odm. (1881 – 1963), daughter of Bohdan and Maria Franciszka Sołtan. From the mid-19th century until the destruction of the Pietniczany castle, it did not undergo major changes.
Despite its classicist reconstruction and the addition of side pavilions, the main body of the palace complex retained its original, austere shape of a castle and also bore its name to the end; Pietniczany Castle. It had a rectangular plan, but very close to a square, and three stories: a vaulted, relatively low ground floor, above it a much higher, also vaulted, serving as the piano nobile first floor, and the later added second floor, already with flat ceilings. Both the symmetrical front elevation of the castle with six widely spaced axes and the garden elevation on the extreme axes were accented by corner projections closed with triangular, bracketed, smooth pediments. The ground floor of the castle, with elevations entirely rusticated, was equipped with relatively small, rectangular, six-pane windows, framed in wide, profiled surrounds, closed with horizontal pediments on consoles. Separated from the ground floor by a narrow cornice, the first floor had windows of the same width, but two panes higher than the lower ones, with triangular pediment tops, also on consoles. The second floor’s windows, similar in shape and size to the ground floor’s, received identical framing but without any pediments. The decoration of both side elevations was similar to the longer elevations, but the four window openings were spaced so that the two central ones formed a pair, while the two outer ones were set much further apart. All the smoothly plastered elevations were closed by a wide triglyph frieze, with a row of brackets and a profiled cornice above. Already during the first expansion, both projections of the front facade were connected by a gallery composed of six Tuscan columns without bases, supporting the upper gallery along its entire length, enclosed by a beautiful wrought iron balustrade with both vertical and plant grotesque motifs. The two central columns were eventually enclosed with glazed doors. A small vestibule was thus formed. The garden gallery was created by eight more massive columns, tapering towards the top, placed on a low stone terrace, also without bases. The upper gallery was laid with black and white marble tiles in a checkerboard pattern. The main motif of the garden balustrade was partially overlapping ovals. The main body of the castle was covered by a fairly high, smooth hipped roof, distinguished above the projections, with four massive, plastered chimneys spaced evenly.
The quarter-circle, residential, also partially vaulted galleries connected the castle with the later built, opposite pavilions, forming a large horseshoe. On the front courtyard side, the gallery with some blind windows had elevations entirely covered with rustication. The window openings framed in surrounds were topped with horizontal pediments on consoles. Each gallery was preceded by twelve columns, along with the residential garden section covered with a smooth gabled roof, with three massive chimneys. Initially, the roof rested directly on the column capitals, but later a beam was added under it and decorated with a triglyph frieze.
A different appearance was given to the garden side of the gallery. The left was covered with smooth plasters, enlivened only by wide, profiled surrounds of rectangular, low-set windows or doors. The right, housing part of the representative rooms, also with smooth plasters, received a richer decoration. Between the rectangular windows or double porte-fenetres in the Serlian type, wall-attached half-columns were placed. At the curve of the central arch, two hemispherically vaulted niches were also placed, probably intended for statues.
Two identical in shape, two-story pavilions with high basements, three-axis on the courtyard and garden side, and two-axis on the side, with a plan almost of a perfect square, also had identical external decoration. Their plaster on the ground floor was entirely rusticated. On the upper floor, rustication was used only as vertical bands covering the corners and distinguishing the central axes with false projections. The windows on the lower floor were topped with pediments on consoles, on the upper floor they had no pediments. The floors were horizontally divided by a narrow cornice, and the elevations were topped by a much wider, profiled one.
The Pietniczany castle is one of the very few residences in the eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose interior layout gained detailed documentation while it was still inhabited by the owners. In 1905, measurements were made of all the floors of the main body, as well as both pavilions and galleries. Unfortunately, this documentation is only minimally supplemented by photographs, mostly based on information from the last owner. Not in all cases was the purpose of individual rooms and halls the same in 1905 and 1917. Not all were described either. However, it is certain that they had smooth walls in solid colors or painted in various compositions, oak parquet floors laid in a geometric pattern, two-wing paneled doors lacquered white, and similar window joinery, most often high, round stoves with a cornice at the top, and not very numerous fireplaces.
From the vestibule enclosed by the frames of two columns, through the stone-framed door, one entered a windowless hall. Massive, oak, two-wing doors, covered with half-centimeter thick iron sheet, decorated with narrow, diagonal, intersecting strips, were pierced at chest height by two round loopholes. On the inside of the door hung an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. From this side, they were closed with three powerful, oak bolts. Since the hall was windowless, a second pair of oak doors with two panes secured by grilles with the Syrokomla coat of arms was installed. The hall had a barrel vault, whitewashed. A large, wrought iron decorative lantern hung from it. The walls were maintained in a sandy tone. Shallow fluting divided them into large rectangles. The movable furnishings consisted of a table with a top one meter wide and 10 cm thick, made from a single board, coat hangers, and the so-called “barrier,” or bed for the duty Cossack. Above the table hung an interesting and valuable plan of the Pietniczany key from 1740, intricately crafted, with Polish and Latin inscriptions: “The boundary between the lands of the Honorable Grocholski family, and the town of His Royal Majesty Vinnytsia,” and above the barrier an old-fashioned elongated mirror, composed of three panes, framed in gilded, patinated frames. The decoration of this room was complemented by a few hunting trophies and annually changed harvest wreaths.
Adjacent to the entrance hall on its left side was a second hall, recently called the “hunting” hall, and on the 1905 plan simply the antechamber. It had a ribbed, whitewashed vault, with a wrought lantern, oil-painted walls, and a stone floor.
There stood a high, round stove made of granite stones, covered with whitewashed cloth, a brick fireplace, a wooden bench, a chest the height of a table with wood for kindling, and a row of chairs with octagonal backs and Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. On the walls hung stuffed heads of deer, fallow deer, and wild boar. In this room, hunters gathered directly after the hunt for tea.
The doors on the left side of the “hunting” hall led to a corner guest room, vaulted similarly and with walls painted also in a smooth light color. The furnishings consisted of then-modern, comfortable furniture, but without a definite style. The greatest decoration of this room was an old painting of the Madonna and Child, of the Italian school. Various residents lived here, sometimes staying in Pietniczany for many years.
The “hunting” hall also connected directly with the room designated in 1905 as the library, recently called the “black” room, with two windows overlooking the garden terrace. It was rib-vaulted. All its walls were covered with romantic-style paintings, executed al fresco by artists, Napoleonic emigrants, imitating rocks, trees, shrubs, a stream with a waterfall, and there was also a medieval castle on a high mountain. Precisely because of these paintings and the low-lying arches of the vault, there were no pictures in the “black” room. Only above the entrance to the corner room called both in 1905 and 1917 “Arab,” hung a sultan’s signature, framed in a narrow gilded frame, and above a large couch covered with kilims – a large stuffed owl sitting on a branch. In one of the corners stood a round stove. The entire oak plank floor was constantly covered with a thick Persian carpet.
The center of the “black” room was occupied by a large, square table of black oak with thick, carved legs, covered with a kilim. On it stood a lamp made of gilded bronze in the shape of an Ionic column. The chairs of walnut wood were also upholstered with kilims. The black marble fireplace was so large that its cornice was at shoulder height of a tall man warming himself by it. On the cornice, on the sides stood three-candle bronze candelabra, with figures of Egyptians holding candlesticks on their shoulders or heads.
Closer to the center were two other bronze candlesticks with wide pedestals, in the middle an old-fashioned clock, also in a bronze frame. Above the fireplace, along its entire width, was set into the wall a mirror composed of three parts, about half a meter high, without any frames. In the spacious hearth of the fireplace, entire huge logs easily fit. A two-wing walnut screen, decorated in the upper part with views of the desert and Arabs with camels, painted on canvas by Maria Hieronimowa Sobańska and Princess Stefania Korybut-Woroniecka, protected those sitting around from excessive heat. Under the window stood a mahogany desk with bronze decorations, covered with a Turkish tablecloth. The further furnishings of the room were comfortable, but newer sofas, also decorated with bronzes. The equipment was completed by a piano, harmonium, and several armchairs and chairs not belonging to the set, while on the sides of the sofas were small bookcases, also with bronze applications. Various family celebrations took place in the “black” room. A Christmas tree for the children of officials and servants was also arranged there.
Of the two rooms adjacent to the “black” room on the left side, the already mentioned corner “Arab” room had walls decorated with several Arabic inscriptions, verses from the Koran. There were comfortable sofas and a round table of black wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, covered with an eastern tablecloth. On the table lay the Gospel in an Arabic edition from around 1720, bound in parchment skin. The adjacent “Turkish” room looked similar, directly connecting with the gallery, designated as a guest room in 1905. Both were painted and furnished by Maria from the Grocholski family, Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska, later a Discalced Carmelite, who traveled a lot with her husband in the Middle East and knew the Arabic language.
On the right from the central hall was another hall, always called the service hall, vaulted similarly to the “hunting” hall, with dark wooden bench-chests and oak chairs, on the backs of which also appeared Zamoyski coats of arms embossed in brass. The right corner projection room often changed its purpose. At the time of measurement, it was named the “writer’s room.” On the right side, partially adjacent to the “service” hall was also a fairly large room serving as a pantry. Its main piece of furniture was a huge, multi-winged cabinet containing family silver, porcelain, and table linen, accumulated over five generations of the Grocholski family. The right garden corner room, the equivalent of the “Arab” room on the opposite end, served as a pantry but was also called “over the cellars.” From there, spiral stairs led to the castle cellars and underground corridors, extending far under the garden, but partially already collapsed.
From the “service” hall, straight ahead, one entered the second two-window room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, identical in dimensions to the “black” room on its left side, also rib-vaulted, with a round stove in the corner, serving as a home chapel. It had blue-toned walls and simple furnishings. In the altar hung a large painting of Our Lady, under it a gilded crucifix of Byzantine shapes with a reliquary in the middle, and around it engravings depicting the Stations of the Cross.
In the left, projection part of the castle, between the middle “Turkish” room and the front guest room, were side stairs leading both up and down to the cellars. The grand staircase, illuminated by two large wrought iron lanterns, with wide oak steps leading to the upper floor, was located directly opposite the main entrance hall. On its walls hung family portraits, mostly of the “Sarmatian” type, and opposite the central turn a large mirror, above it a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski in his youth, painted in a red uniform.
On the first floor, the central part of the front tract was occupied by a square hall, also called the “room over the stairs,” equipped with a stone slab floor covered with Turkish carpets. On an oak table stood a bronze fragment of “The March to Wawel” by Wacław Szymanowski, depicting Stefan Batory, Hetman Jan Zamoyski, and a group of winged knights.
On the walls hung two portraits: Jan Zamoyski in a red delia and with a baton in hand, and Colonel Remigian Grocholski (1643 – 1705), a participant in the Vienna relief, depicted in armor and with a mace. It was a copy of an original from the era, kept in the Tuchów church.
Two rooms, one on the left, the other on the right side of the hall, were marked as antechambers on the 1905 plan. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the right wing served as a billiard room for the youth. Both its vault and walls were painted with patterned oil paint. From the ceiling hung a chandelier of cast brass, decorated with eagles and one large Polish eagle in a crown. Along the walls of this room stood walnut cabinets on four legs, decorated with white marble tiles. In the middle of the single-wing doors was Diana with a bow and dog. These cabinets contained bound volumes of illustrated magazines. There was also a large table with a white marble top and carved mahogany chairs. Several paintings of the Dutch school hung here, as well as a battle painting with a knight galloping on a white horse against the backdrop of fires – a painting depicting the plundering of the Temple of Sibyl in Puławy by Russian soldiers, and a portrait of King Stanisław August, sitting at a table and resting his hand on an hourglass, depicted without a wig, in French attire, a copy or replica of an original by Bacciarelli.
The front, right, projection corner room, rib-vaulted and painted al fresco by Tadeusz Grocholski, was named the “heraldic salon.” In the center of its ceiling, the artist presented the family coat of arms Syrokomla, and in the corners, in medallions, the coats of arms of houses with which the Grocholski family was more closely related through marriages. This room housed library cabinets containing the most valuable and oldest part of the castle’s book collection, as well as illustrated magazines in Polish, French, and English, of more recent date. The rest of the library was scattered in various other rooms. The Pietniczany book collection had no catalog.
The right projection room on the garden side, designated as a salon in 1905, was recently named a study. It seems it was not properly furnished at the time, serving temporarily as a storage for miniatures of kings, queens, and French princes, as well as various tapestries, engravings, vases, and other decorative items, purchased in Paris by Princess Maria Czartoryska.
Between the projection rooms was an elongated dining room, vaulted similarly to others, with oil-painted walls in a golden color, imitating sun rays. A large chandelier of dark bronze hung from the ceiling. Besides the large extendable table and chairs, this room contained a carved glazed cabinet with antique Saxon porcelain, buffets, and side tables. On the walls hung oil portraits of Voivode Marcin Grocholski and his wife Cecylia from the Myszka-Chołoniewski family, both copies of Lampi, as well as starost Michał and starościna Maria from the Śliźniów family, of unspecified authorship.
Both from the corner “study” and the dining room, one could enter the first room of the inter-projection section of the garden tract, originally named “Greek,” and before 1917 “gray,” painted in a pearl color. The white ribbed vault was adorned with a large Venetian chandelier.
The furnishings included, alongside a piano, a set of mahogany furniture decorated with marbles and bronzes, a glazed walnut cabinet containing, among other things, silver cups with old coins and several smaller items. The artistic equipment included a Boulle clock, several bronze candlesticks of artistic and historical value, and six miniatures with heads of old men in deep, gilded frames. In the “gray” salon, quite a few paintings were gathered, including portraits: a large one of Antoni Grocholski (1767 – 1805), captain of the national cavalry, depicted sitting in an armchair, girded with the Order of the White Eagle, painted by Angelika Kauffmann; further the Grocholski sword-bearers, sisters of Antoni: Generalowa Tekla Franciszkowa Łaźnińska (1772 – 1797) and Julia Colonel Józefowa Poniatowska (1773 – 1832), both painted by Józef Pitschmann; the Voivodess Salomea from the Grocholski family, primo voto Potocka, secundo voto Dziekońska; Prince Stanisław Chołoniewski; pastel portraits of Maria from the Grocholski family Princess Witoldowa Czartoryska and her sister Helena Janowa Brzozowska, painted in Paris in the 1850s by Tadeusz Grocholski; his own small self-portrait in a large hat with an ostrich feather a la Rembrandt, and finally an ebony easel oil painting depicting an Italian woman with a basket of flowers, also painted by Tadeusz Grocholski.
A similarly sized, also two-window neighboring salon, designated as “Pompeian” in 1905, later named “yellow” after the changed color of the walls, had patterns from Raphael’s stanzas painted on the vaults. Its entire floor was almost entirely covered by a large Turkish carpet. Only in front of the white marble fireplace lay another, smaller one. Above the fireplace, in a white, narrow, plaster frame was an old-fashioned mirror composed of several parts, and on the cornice of the fireplace stood two three-candle, bronze, gilded candelabra. From the center of the vault hung a multi-candle chandelier, also made of gilded bronze. Among the furniture stood out, among others, a low, two-winged mahogany cabinet decorated with bronzes, with a top of pink marble, on which also stood a marble bust of Prince Adam Czartoryski and family photographs. Above the cabinet hung an oil portrait of Bazyli Walicki, Voivode of Rawa, framed in an oval frame. The rest of the “yellow” salon’s furnishings consisted of many antique pieces of furniture, some of which came from the Czartoryski residence in France, from where they arrived in Pietniczany along with other items belonging to Princess Maria from the Grocholski family Czartoryska. The artistic equipment was completed by portraits hanging on both sides of the high mirror set into the wall; on the right side Henryk Grocholski (1802-1866) and his wife Ksawera from the Brzozowski family (1807-1874), and on the left a print depicting Zofia from the Czartoryski family, Stanisławowa Zamoyska (1780 – 1837) with three sons according to François Gérard. On an old easel, covered with a Turkish tablecloth, was placed a portrait of Stanisław Count Grocholski (1835 – 1907), painted on wood by Kazimierz Pochwalski.
In the left projection part of the castle, besides the side staircase, there were still three rooms with varying purposes. One of them recently served as a bedroom. So there stood a large French ebony bed. Above it hung a good copy of the Sistine Madonna and two miniatures depicting Zdzisław and Józefa from the Walicki family Zamoyski.
The second floor had the layout, dimensions, and shape of rooms and halls identical to the first floor, although they were lower. It also had almost entirely residential purposes, both in 1905 and 1917. In the hall hung a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu and a painting depicting a dwarf in a military uniform of the court of Louis XIV (?), and under the ceiling a gallery of portraits of French kings and princes, composed of over 30 images.
Above the “yellow” salon was a library room. Its furnishings mainly consisted of glazed walnut cabinets decorated with bronze fittings, filled with books. The entire Pietniczany book collection numbered about 10,000 volumes.
This room also housed collections of domestic butterflies and moths along with some colorful tropical butterflies, collections of eggs of many domestic birds and nests of Podolian birds, and a collection of minerals gathered from various Polish lands.
In this group was also a crystal cross mounted on a base of Siberian metals, a gift from the Siberians to Ksawera Grocholska, a token of gratitude from exiles for her many years of care over them. This natural history collection was a memento of Henryk Grocholski, who besides it left quite a few valuable publications in this field in various languages. In the library hung several more old family portraits, of smaller format.
The room above the “gray” salon served as the master’s bedroom. It had furnishings in the style of Louis XV and XVI, consisting of: two mahogany beds with bronzes and similar small cabinets and one large one, as well as a desk with a top covered with leather with embossed and gilded edges. Besides that, there was also a sofa, mahogany tables, armchairs, etc. On one of the walls hung a Turkish cloth from Vienna, on another a Buczacz cloth, resembling wide Słuck belts. Against the background of the Buczacz cloth was placed a bronze clock in the style of Louis XVI, and on both sides similar wall sconces. Also, other rooms on the second floor in both projection parts and adjacent to the hall had antique furniture, some richly inlaid or inlaid. In all, there were many bronzes, prints, and oil paintings. The best-equipped rooms in terms of art included: the lady of the house’s dressing room, the master’s playroom, and the armory with a collection of 28 pieces of hunting weapons. In the master’s room, decorated with a large portrait of Maria from the Sołtan family, Zdzisławowa Grocholska, and Henryk and Ksawera from the Brzozowski family Grocholska, was a collection of old weapons, among which stood out: a Turkish saber of Henryk
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