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Królikarnia

Królikarnia
The Rabbit House
Warsaw - Krolikarnia palace (front).jpg
Main façade.
General information
Architectural style Neoclassical
Town or city Warsaw
Country Poland
Construction started 1782
Completed 1786
Demolished 1944
Client Charles Thomatis
Design and construction
Architect Domenico Merlini

Królikarnia (in English, "The Rabbit House") is a historic classicist palace in Warsaw, Poland; and a neighborhood in the Mokotów district of Warsaw.

Since 1965 the palace has housed a museum dedicated to Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski.

The palace is named for its former function as a rabbit warren for Poland's King Augustus II the Strong (reigned 1697–1706 and 1709–33).

The Królikarnia was erected on the picturesque Wisła River escarpment between 1782 and 1786 for King Stanisław August Poniatowski's Theatre Entrepreneur and Chamberlain, Charles Thomatis, Count de Valéry, by royal architect Domenico Merlini. It was modeled after the famous Renaissance-era Villa Rotonda outside Vicenza, Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio.

On his estate, the Count established a brewery, brickyard, inn, mill, barn, and garden with vineyard. Thomatis has also been described as a pimp for King Stanisław August Poniatowski (reigned 1764–95); and the Count's "villa at Królikarnia [as] little more than a high-class brothel".

In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the insurrection's leader Tadeusz Kosciuszko resided in the palace.


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