OVER 300 YEARS OF HISTORY
Pakoszow, a late Baroque estate located in a secluded area between Piechowice and Jelenia Gora. It is extremely interesting to combine the palace character with the functional use of the building as a linen bleaching plant. Since April 2012, the building, which in earlier years housed, among others, an orphanage and which belonged to private owners, functions as a palace hotel. Learn more about our history!
WOAL from Jelenia Góra
Since the late Middle Ages, linen products were the most important product in the economy of the Jelenia Góra Valley. They were produced mainly by the hands of peasants, women and children. Particularly in the Jeleniogórska Kotlina special thin linen called voile was woven.Emperor Ferdinand II in 1630 granted privileges to the city of Jelenia Góra, which contributed to the development and rapid economic growth of the Jeleniogórska Kotlina. In 1638, the Chamber of Commerce was founded. Only native merchants belonged to this socialite, which at the same time had to control the conformity of product quality.
WOAL LORDS
From the members of the merchant socialite developed an aristocracy of merchants, no worse than the family aristocracy and equally wealthy. These so-called "lords of the veil" could afford to erect costly merchant houses, which served as warehouses and transshipment centers and had, for the most part, large halls on the floors for ceremonial purposes.
The eponymous most important representative of the merchant aristocracy was Christian Menzel (1667-1748), who was among the city's wealthiest residents, as well as owning the most beautiful house in the center of Jelenia Gora. It was Menzel who contributed most to the construction and financing of the Evangelical Grace Church, one of the most beautiful churches in Silesia. In addition, he also funded the organ, which can still be listened to and admired in its full glory today.
BAROQUE PALACE
The site formerly belonged to the Schaffgotsch estate. Conversion to a Baroque palace took place in 1725 thanks to Johann Martin Gottfried (1685-1737), later mayor and member of the church board, brother-in-law of Jelenia Góra flax merchant ("Schleierherrn") Christian Mentzel(1667- 1748).
The palace, together with its mansard roof consisting of a rectangular block and side projections, has a late Baroque southern facade. The first floor has simple vaulted ceilings. On the first floor are living and representative rooms with a large banquet hall, whose ceiling is covered with allegorical frescoes. Prussian King Frederick II visited the palace in 1759, 1777 and once again in 1785.
FLAX BLEACHING PLANT
The next owners were Georg Friedrich Smith (1703-1757) and from 1771 Heinrich Hess (1745-1802), a merchant and director of a sugar factory in Jelenia Góra. It was at this time that the name Hess's Bielarnia became established.
The building was used for residential purposes and as a linen bleaching plant. Materials were soaked in vats on the first floor, rinsed and laid out in meadows to dry. The water needed for this purpose was drawn from the Kamienna River, which flowed nearby. The so-called water privileges necessary for this purpose were granted by a certificate from King Frederick II in 1777. The bleaching plant was converted for economic reasons in 1856.
SPECIAL GUESTS
Meeting place During the reign of Heinrich and Erdmuthe Hess (1755-1808), the Palace was a meeting place for many intellectuals, and was visited by, among others;
poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Karkonosze painter Sebastian Carl Christoph Reinhardt (1738-1827), councilor Johann Joachim Christoph Bode, war advisor Jonae and John Quincy Adams, later president of the United States of America.
PALACE AS A MONUMENT
After the death of Heinrich Hess, the palace passed into the possession of his cousin, his adopted son Johann Daniel Hess (1764-1854). Later owner engaged in court martial Daniel Hermann Hess (1815-1884), working as a lawyer in Jelenia Gora, used the Palace as a summer residence. The last residents were Margarethe Drewes, née. Hess (1872-1939) with her husband Pastor Hans Drewes and seven children. Pakosha's bleachery remained in their possession until 1945.
As a consequence of the war, almost all of Silesia passed to Poland. The owners of Pakoszow were expropriated by the Polish authorities. Subsequently, the palace was used for various purposes-including as an orphanage. Later it remained empty. Since September 1, 1959 the palace has been listed as a monument under number 630/619.
NEW LIFE OF THE PALACE
The grandson of the last owner, Hagen Hartmann (born 1941 in Breslau), acquired the building in 2005, which at the time belonged to a private Polish owner. With the help of architect Christopher Jan Schmidt, he adapted it to hotel functions, restored and expanded it between 2008 and 2012.
The restoration of the Baroque Hall with its illusionist and allegorist paintings was handled by Dresden painter Christoph Wetzel, who also restored the Baroque dome of Dresden's Frauenkirche. The original painting, which has not survived to the present day, was painted by Baroque painter Johann Franz Hoffmann.
