Maciejowiec Palace, palace in Maciejowiec, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Maciejowiec Palace is a Neoclassical building erected between 1834 and 1838, with two side wings added after 1913. Its front has a semicircular projection carrying a first-floor balcony on four Doric columns with a metal railing, topped by a pediment with a cartouche bearing the von Kramsta coat of arms. The palace stands in a landscape garden laid out in 1835–1838, which drops south in terraces toward the Bóbr valley.
The palace was built between 1834 and 1838 in the Neoclassical style for Johann Dolan. In 1913 Emma von Kramsta acquired it and added two side wings. After her son was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi state seized the building, using it first as a military hospital and later as the residence of Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima from 1943. After 1945 it passed to Poland and was used for a time by the Wrocław University of Economics; it became private property in 1989.
The palace's name comes from the village of Maciejowiec, known in German as Matzdorf. The von Kramsta family, owners from 1913, left their coat of arms in the pediment cartouche above the balcony, and their neorenaissance mausoleum stands at the edge of the park. In 1942 Renata Kracker von Schwarzenfeld, wife of the Hitler assassin Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff, was buried there.
The estate is fenced and can currently only be viewed from outside as the interior remains closed to visitors. Parking is available near the small chapel on the grounds, from where you can walk and explore the exterior and gardens at your own pace.
In 1942 Renata Kracker von Schwarzenfeld, wife of Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff, was buried in the palace mausoleum; Gersdorff later took part in the 1944 plot against Hitler. The palace itself had been confiscated by the Nazi state after Emma von Kramsta's son was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and it then served as a military hospital before becoming the summer residence of Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima from 1943.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,564 contributors worldwide.