Ruzhany Palace

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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Belarusian. (September 2015) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Belarusian article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Belarusian Wikipedia article at [[:be:Ружанскі палац]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|be|Ружанскі палац}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The ruins of Ruzhany castle and theatre in 2007

Ruzhany Palace (Belarusian: палац у Ружанах, Polish: Pałac w Różanie)^[1] is a ruined palace compound in Ruzhany village, Pruzhany Raion (district), Brest Voblast (province), Western Belarus. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Ruzhany, then called Różany, was the main seat of the senior line of the Sapieha noble family, known as the  [pl]. The castle is currently undergoing systematic reconstruction, with the palace ornate gate and entry building being already restored.

History[]

Ruzhany began its life in the late 16th century as the site of Lew Sapieha's castle, the palace being completed in 1602.^[2] The Sapieha residence was destroyed in the course of the internecine strife in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania when it was attacked by Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki's forces in 1700.

Ruzhany Palace was rebuilt as a grand Neoclassical residence in the 1770s by Aleksander Michał Sapieha, employing the services of the architect of Saxony, who set the palace in an English park landscape.^[2] Aside from the palace, there was a theatre (1784–88), an orangery and several other outbuildings. Becker also designed the local church (rebuilt in the 1850s).

The castle gate was recently reconstructed.

By the time of King Stanisław II's visit in 1784, work on the palace had been suspended. The Sapieha estates were nationalised in the aftermath of the November Uprising (1831). Three years later, the palace compound was sold to be used as a textile mill and weaving factory.^[3]

In 1914 the palace was accidentally set on fire by factory workers. The First World War and subsequent financial hardships prevented the building's restoration until 1930, however the partially restored palace became a ruin again within fifteen years, a casualty of the Second World War. The ornate palace gate survives and has recently been restored.

See also[]

• Biaroza monastery, a family vault of the Sapieha family not far from Ruzhany
• Halshany Castle, another ruined Sapieha residence in Belarus
• List of castles in Belarus

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sapieha Palace in Ružany.

• Photos at Radzima org. (in English)
• Photos at Globus (in Russian)
• Belarus Guide (in English)
• Unofficial Ruzhany site (in Russian)

Coordinates: 52°51′36″N 24°53′46″E / 52.860°N 24.896°E / 52.860; 24.896