Palace of the Counts Tyszkiewicz: A Neoclassical Residence in Brody, Ukraine
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Ukraine
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Austria-Hungary, Habsburg
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page8 sections
History
The Palace of the Counts Tyszkiewicz is an early twentieth-century neoclassical residence in Brody, Ukraine, constructed in 1909–1912 for the Tyszkiewicz family. It stands in the central part of the former suburban village of Stari Brody, now incorporated into the town.
Creation of the Residence
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Potocki family, then among the major landowners in Brody, began selling properties in Stari Brody. The Tyszkiewicz family purchased one of these plots. An initial palace was built there during the early twentieth century but was soon dismantled.
A new masonry residence replaced it on the same site. Its construction is dated to 1909–1912, and the building was erected in 1912 on the initiative of Countess Wanda Tyszkiewicz, a member of the Tyszkiewicz noble family.
War, Soviet Rule, and Later Use
The palace survived the First World War and the interwar period. It was damaged during the Second World War and later restored. During the period of Soviet rule, its household furnishings and luxury objects were stolen and removed, and their destination is unknown.
The former residence now houses the office of the State Enterprise Brody Forestry, whose employees maintain the building. On 24 June 1986, a decision of the Lviv Regional Executive Committee entered the palace in Ukraine’s State Register of Locally Significant Architectural Monuments under protection number 678-m.
Remains
The palace is a compact, one-storey masonry building with a basement, set back from the street’s building line. Its centrally axial plan follows a corridor-based layout, while a hipped roof covers the main volume. The building is regarded as a striking example of early twentieth-century palace architecture in the Neoclassical style, which revives the ordered forms of classical Greek and Roman architecture through symmetry, columns, pediments, and restrained ornament.
Palace Building
Entrance Facade
The main entrance projects from the facade as a colonnade in the Tuscan order, a simplified classical order with plain columns and lightly decorated capitals. The columns support a stone balcony at the mansard level. Its entrance is framed by a prominent rusticated masonry opening, using emphasized blocks or joints to create a textured surface, and crowned by a shaped pediment with a moulded cornice and pilasters.
Pediment and Exterior Details
Plant-based stucco ornament fills the pediment’s tympanum, the inner field of the pediment. The balcony has cast-stone balusters, while rusticated pilasters and framed window openings enrich the first-floor facade. The central projecting section, or avant-corps, originally displayed the Tyszkiewicz family coat of arms in a cartouche, a framed ornamental panel. This emblem was later replaced by the state coat of arms of Ukraine, the only stated alteration to the facade.
Park Grounds
A park surrounds the palace and includes a pond and a gazebo. In the early 2000s, a fountain-statue symbolizing forestry was installed in front of the building.
Nearby sites
