Winter Palace, Bila Tserkva

The Winter Palace, Bila Tserkva, in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, is a classical-style palace erected in 1796 for the Polish noble Branicki family, commissioned by Franciszek Ksawery Branicki. Constructed as the family’s winter residence, it formed one half of the Branicki household’s seasonal pair of houses, the companion summer residence standing in the Alexandria park until that building ceased to exist. The palace served as a focal point of the Branickis’ local estate and later took on a variety of public and institutional roles that tie it to several major political changes in the region.

During the nineteenth century the palace remained linked to the Branicki household and to visitors associated with the landed elite. In 1823 the memoirist Filip Vigel stayed at the residence. By the later decades of the century parts of the building were adapted for estate management and display: at times it contained a private Branicki arms collection, and by the late 1800s it served as the commissariat or principal management office for the Branicki estate. On 22 October 1876 Róża Czacka, later beatified, was born in the palace; a plaque affixed to the building records her birth.

The palace sustained direct harm during the revolutionary turmoil of 1917, when it was looted and set on fire. In the 1920s the building accommodated local party organizations, and from 1930 until 1941 it housed the district committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. German forces occupied the town during the Second World War and used the palace as a military hospital from 1941 to 1944. After the front moved, between 1944 and 1949 it served as Special Hospital No. 2686 for German prisoners of war. In the postwar decades the building again became an administrative centre, hosting the district executive committee and the district committee of people’s control from the 1950s until 1969. The state placed the building under legal protection in 1956, listing it as an architectural monument. Today the Winter Palace is occupied by School of Arts No. 1 and the district archives.