The Palace in Nieborów

The Palace in Nieborów is a baroque-styled palace designed by Tylman from Gameren for the order of Michał Stefan Radziejowski. Between 1774 and 1945, it was owned by the Radziwiłł family.

Between 1690 and 1696, primate Michał Stefan Radziejowski acquired Nieborów and constructed a palace, but he only visited it occasionally. In 1697, he already sold the wealth of Nieborów to Jerzy Towiański. Over the following centuries, the palace often changed owners. These owners included, among others, Aleksander Jakub Lubomirski – the Great Crown Chef and general, Stanisław Łochocki – the castellan of Dobrzyń and Michał Kazimierz Ogiński – the voivode of Vilnius.

Since 1774, the palace was owned by prince Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł, which gathered a rich collection of paintings by painters from many European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain. He also had a cabinet with dozens of thousands of figures, a library of unique old prints (since the 16th century), and collections of decorative art – silver, porcelain, glasses and fabrics.

Since 1841, the palace was owned by the son of Michał Hieronim – Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł.

In the mid-19th century, the collection was partially distracted through sales, and also as a result of the departure of prince Zygmunt Radziwiłł to Paris. The plant collection from the local Orangery, which was an imperial property since 1868, was used to provide the New Orangery in the Łazienki Park in Warsaw. Since 1879, priest Michał Piotr Radziwiłł decided to bring the Nieborów palace back to its former glory.