Palace on the Water

Łazienki Palace Pałac Łazienkowski
Palace's northern façade.
General information
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Town or city	Warsaw
Country	Poland
Construction started	before 1683
Completed	1689
Client	Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, Stanisław II Augustus
Design and construction
Architect	Tylman Gamerski, Domenico Merlini (1775-1795)

The Łazienki Palace ([waˈʑɛŋki], Polish: pałac Łazienkowski — in English the Baths Palace, also called the Palace on the Water and the Palace on the Isle) is a Baroque palace in Warsaw's Royal Baths Park.

The Łazienki Palace is located in the largest park in Warsaw that occupies over 76 hectares of the city center. From 1674 the property and the nearby Ujazdów Castle belonged to Count Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, who built a Baroque Bath House named "Łazienka". The building, erected on a square plan, was richly decorated with stuccos, statues and paintings; some of the original decorations and architectural details are still preserved from that period. In 1766 King Stanisław II Augustus purchased the estate and decided to convert the pavilion into his small, private summer residence.

The building began as a bathhouse for Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, owner of adjacent Ujazdów Castle. After 1678 the Lubomirski palace complex in Ujazdów, was enriched with four park pavilions: Arcadia, Hermitage, Frascati and the largest of them the Bathhouse. The marble building was constructed before 1683 according to design by Tylman Gamerski. Finished in 1689, it was intended to serve as a bathhouse, habitable pavilion and a garden grotto. Interiors of the newly built structure were embellished with profuse stucco decorations, also designed by Gamerski. Among the decorations were water deities (like Nereus), surrounding the main decorational feature of the pavilion - the fountain. Other chambers had richly decorated plafonds and supraportes, while the walls were covered with Delft tiles. The façades and interiors were decorated with sculptures, reliefs, Latin inscriptions (Musa Dryas, Nymphaeque boves et Pastor Apollo / Hic maneant, fugiat diva Minerva domus - Muse, dryad and nymphs, bullocks and Apollo the shepherd let stay here, the divine Minerva let disdain this house on the portal of the southern façade) and Lubomirski coat of arms - Szreniawa.