Kątki Palace

Kątki Palace, in a village in the Marcinowice municipality in Świdnica County, stands on the site of a former manor house. Surviving fragments of walls from the 14th century are sometimes linked to a ducal farmstead of Bolko II and Agnes, and later to a fortified seat of the von Messenau family.

From a medieval manor to a 19th-century palace

The von Messenau family held the estate from 1487 until the mid-17th century. Later owners were Abraham von Czettritz, mentioned in 1717, and Carl Heinrich Freiherr von Czettritz und Neuhauß, mentioned in 1731. The present palace was built in 1860 on older, two-storey stone walls.

The form and a relocated Gothic portal

The building has an irregular layout: a square tower, a main body with extensive cellars, two storeys covered by a hipped roof, and a southern wing with a flat roof. During the 19th-century rebuilding, a late-Gothic, two-arched portal from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries was moved to the farm wing, reused as a ready-made element from the older structure.

Current condition

The palace is partly inhabited, kept under everyday watch by its residents. Its technical condition is described as satisfactory, though the facades are heavily deteriorated. The building and park were entered in the heritage register on 8 November 1980 - the palace under number A/4259/761/WŁ, the park under number A/4260/762/WŁ.

Practical information

• Address: Kątki, Marcinowice municipality, Świdnica County.
• Getting there: by local road from Świdnica, about 7.5 km from the Church of Peace in Świdnica and less than 8 km from Mount Ślęża.
• What to expect: the building is partly inhabited, so visiting is limited to viewing from the outside, out of respect for the residents' privacy.