53 Żeromskiego Street in Radom: Former Palace of the Sandomierz Voivodeship Commission
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Poland, Russian
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page8 sections
History
53 Żeromskiego Street in Radom, Poland, is the former Palace of the Sandomierz Voivodeship Commission, a Classicist administrative palace built between 1825 and 1827. Its construction followed Radom’s appointment in 1816 as the seat of a voivodeship, a major administrative region in Poland, within the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish state established in 1815 under Russian sovereignty. The palace housed territorial authorities for almost a century and later became part of the municipal and regional administrative center of the city.
Construction and administrative use
In 1816, the authorities decided that Radom needed a purpose-built headquarters for the officials of the new voivodeship. A plot was selected near the Lublin suburb, close to the boundary with the village of Dzierzków. Under the city-expansion plan, the site lay beyond Radom’s contemporary administrative limits, while the Lublin Road was intended to form a new axis of development. The road was renamed Żeromski Street in 1925.
Antonio Corazzi prepared the design in 1822, and Józef Zajączek, the viceroy, or imperial representative, of the Kingdom of Poland, approved it. Construction began in 1825 and continued until 1827 under the supervision of Stefan Baliński, with Grzegorz Bielski managing the building work. From completion until 1918, the palace remained in continuous administrative use. It served as the seat of the Sandomierz Voivodeship until 1837, the Sandomierz Governorate from 1837 to 1844, and the Radom Governorate from 1844 to 1915. A governorate was an administrative division used under the Russian imperial system.
From independence to occupation
After Poland regained independence, Radom became a county-level city, and the former commission building was used by the county office. In 1919, the city joined the Kielce Voivodeship and also became the seat of a district railway directorate. The first regional museum opened in one of the palace rooms on 18 March 1923. Two years later, it moved to the Hempel Palace. The promulgation of the Act of 5 November was announced from the palace balcony.
During the German occupation of Poland in the Second World War, Radom became the seat of the Radom District administration within the General Government, the German occupation administration established in occupied central and southern Poland. The occupying authorities took over the palace and enlarged it northward and toward the rear. The rear extension was completed by 1942, while associated buildings were erected by 1945. The enlargement formed part of a German plan to establish an administrative center around present-day Kelles-Krauza Street. The broader urban layout remained incomplete.
Postwar administration and preservation
After the Second World War, the complex housed the presidia of the City and County National Councils. The National Councils were local administrative bodies operating in postwar communist Poland. From 1975 to 1998, part of the complex served as the seat of the Radom Voivodeship authorities. Since 1998, it has housed Radom’s municipal administration and delegations of Mazovian voivodeship institutions. A chamber of the district court, historically associated with the commercial court, is also located within the complex.
The palace is entered in the monument register of the Mazovian Voivodeship. Its recorded registrations include entries from 1956, 1972, and 1983, with the latest entry dated 14 April 1983 under number 199/A/83. A concert hall for the Radom Symphony Orchestra was built in the courtyard in 1964. A modern entrance facade for the municipal administration was added on Jan Kiliński Street in 1999, and renovation work took place in 2009.
Remains
Classicist palace and street elevations
The three-storey palace is a Classicist building, using forms and proportions derived from ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The original Corazzi complex consists of a main body facing Żeromski Street and side wings of the same height facing Kiliński and Niedziałkowski streets. The front elevation is approximately 60 metres wide and is arranged across 15 axes, or vertical divisions of the facade. Three projecting sections, known as risalits, organize the elevation: one three-axis central risalit and two outer risalits.
The central risalit contains a four-column Tuscan portico, a columned entrance porch using the plain Tuscan form of the Classical order. It is crowned by a triangular pediment. The outer risalits contain niches framed by single columns and topped by attic walls. Rustication, masonry treatment that emphasizes the joints between blocks, gives the ground floor a strongly articulated appearance. Cornices divide the storeys, and the upper level is crowned by an entablature with a triglyph frieze and a modillion cornice. A triglyph frieze is a band of regularly spaced three-grooved blocks, while a modillion cornice is supported by projecting ornamental blocks.
Internal arrangement and occupation-era extension
The original building had a two-bay internal arrangement, with entrances positioned in the outer risalits. During the German occupation, the plan was altered to a single-bay arrangement and the main entrance was moved to the central risalit. These changes formed part of the larger transformation of the complex for occupation administration.
The enlargement added a northern wing and a new northern front in a style described as Fascist Modernism. The northern elevation has 29 axes and includes a five-storey central risalit extending across 13 axes. Pedestals at roof level carried imperial eagles. The extension was planned with additional wings and a new front approximately twice the width of the historic southern facade. The associated urban layout remained incomplete.
Urban setting and courtyard
The palace stands east of Radom’s city center on Żeromski Street. The former Lublin Customs House lies southeast across from it; in 1840, that customs house marked the eastern boundary of the city. West of the customs house, the main axis of Tadeusz Kościuszko Park leads toward the cathedral of the Radom diocese. Within the palace complex, the 1964 concert hall occupies the courtyard, adding a later public building to the administrative ensemble.
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