Gebhard von Blücher Mausoleum in Krobielowice

The Gebhard von Blücher Mausoleum in Krobielowice is the tomb of the Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, standing north-west of the village, on the site of his former estate in Wrocław County.

Construction and the marshal's burial

Construction took place between 1846 and 1853. Blücher died in Krobielowice on 12 September 1819, and his body was first placed in the church in nearby Wojtkowice; in 1820 it was moved to the crypt. Completion of the building was ordered by King Frederick William IV on the twentieth anniversary of the marshal's death, and the ceremonial funeral, attended by the king, took place on 28 August 1853. The remains of the marshal, his wife and their thirty-year-old daughter were then placed in a copper sarcophagus in the crypt.

Architecture

The mausoleum takes the form of a round tower eleven metres high, built on a square base with sides of 5.5 metres. Its top is crowned with a marble medallion bearing the marshal's bust. The ground floor contains a chapel, and below it, in the crypt, the copper sarcophagus once rested. The entrance was secured with cast-iron doors and a wrought grille, with an inscription dedicated to the field marshal above it.

Destruction and current state

In early spring 1945 the mausoleum was desecrated: Soviet soldiers pulled out the mummified remains of the marshal, his wife and daughter. A priest from Sosnówka gathered the scattered remains and reburied them in an unmarked coffin in the church crypt, and the original entrance to the crypt behind the mausoleum was bricked up. The grave was desecrated again in the 1980s, and in 1996 soldiers of the Bundeswehr and the Polish Army jointly tidied up and secured the area around the building. Today the marble medallion bearing the marshal's likeness is partly destroyed, the face no longer recognisable, though the robe and a hanging lion's paw are still visible. The inscription above the entrance is damaged and barely legible. The entrance to the interior is secured by a metal grille, and the surroundings of the mausoleum are mostly shrubs and trees.

Practical information

• Location: north-west of the village of Krobielowice, municipality of Kąty Wrocławskie, Wrocław County
• The interior is not accessible; it can only be viewed from outside through the locked grille
• Nearby: the Manor in Bliż and the Krzyżowice Palace