Goetz Palace, Brzesko

Goetz Palace in Brzesko, Poland, was built by the Goetz family of German-Bohemian background between 1898 and 1900 in a neobaroque and neo-rococo manner. Erected close to the Okocim Brewery owned by the family, the house served as the industrialists’ principal residence and as a setting for distinguished visitors, linking local industry, elite culture, and regional politics around the turn of the twentieth century.

Construction took place in stages. The central section and the attached chapel were completed by 1900 and the palace was occupied from that year. The family referred to the new building as the “New Palace” to set it apart from an older residence already standing on the brewery grounds. In 1908–1909 the complex was enlarged with an east wing that included a winter garden and a palm house; the enlargement followed the death of the original architect and was drawn up by a Vienna-based designer employed by the family.

The Goetz family traced its roots to Langenenslingen in Upper Swabia and later settled in Bohemia and Galicia, receiving noble rank and elevation to the baronage. Johann Evangelist Goetz established the Okocim Brewery in 1845. After Baron Jan Albin Goetz, who commissioned the palace, died in 1931 the estate passed to his son, Baron Antoni Jan Goetz.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Antoni Jan Goetz left the property and did not return. Early in the conflict the palace accommodated an air force staff, and by 1941 it housed the staff of Group South; military use continued with an officers’ school and a hospital. During wartime portions of the household furniture, artworks and library were taken, and the rococo altar from the chapel was moved in 1945 to the church in Słotwina. Under the 1944 decree issued by the Polish Committee of National Liberation the palace and park were transferred to the State Treasury. On 12 April 1945 an educational institution opened in the building and various schools occupied the rooms through 2002.

Legal and ownership changes followed in the early twenty-first century. In 2002 an heir contested the nationalization; a later withdrawal of those claims allowed the family to reclaim preferential purchase rights. On 26 June 2007 the county authority approved a tender sale while preserving the heirs’ pre-emptive option, and by notarial deed of 30 November 2007 title returned to the Goetz heirs. Since 2008 the palace and its grounds have been held in private ownership. Before the war the residence received several prominent guests, among them an Austrian archduke, the President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, and Julian Nowak, later a prime minister.