A Polish city is selling the remains of an 18th-century palace after abandoning plans for renovation as too expensive. Local authorities are now looking to private investors, who will be able to bid for the building at an auction in November, with a starting price of 37.8 million zloty (€8.2 million).
The Hatzfeld Palace in Wrocław was built between 1765-73, at a time when the city, then known by the German name of Breslau, was part of Prussia. It was designed in neoclassical style by Carl Gotthard Langhans, the same architect who later created the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Hatzfeld Palace in the 19th century (Digital Library of Silesian Voivodeship, under public domain)
During the Second World War, the building served as a headquarters for Karl Hanke, the leader of Gau Lower Silesia, an administrative division of Nazi Germany. During the Red Army’s siege of Breslau in 1945, the palace was severely damaged by Soviet artillery.
After the war, some remaining parts of the building collapsed or were demolished, and the ruins were used as a film set in postwar Poland (to which Breslau, now known by the Polish name of Wrocław, had passed).
Most recently, the partially rebuilt remains of the palace housed the avantgarde BWA art gallery, which was eventually moved to Wrocław railway station in 2018 as the palace deteriorated. The only surviving elements of the previously four-storey building are the walls on the ground floor, the portico and the vestibule.
The city had planned its renovation for many years, with the aim of housing the Ossolineum cultural foundation or a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), reports Gazeta Wrocławska.
That idea was, however, abandoned due to the high costs of reconstruction, estimated at 60 million zloty (€13 million). Now the city will begin an auction for the remains of the palace on 4 November, with bids starting at 37.8 million zloty.
The city wants the potential investor to undertake renovation efforts that would bring the remains of the palace up to the same state as its surrounding buildings. The municipal authorities have set a limit of four years after signing the purchase contract for the reconstruction.
While the former palace has not been listed in the register of monuments since 1960 (but listed separately as a “monument of history” since 1994), Lower Silesian conservators are now seeking to re-enter some elements into the register, reports Gazeta Wrocławska.
The building is earmarked to become a site for services, hospitality, retail and exhibitions. It may also include offices, accommodation and conference facilities.
A previous baroque version of the palace was completed in 1719 for Count Franz von Hatzfeld, a German noble. However, it suffered from Austrian bombardment during the Seven Years’ War and was taken down in 1764.
Main image credit: Marek Śliwecki/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
