WIĘKSZYCE PALACE

This magnificent 19th-century palace now invites guests to a culinary feast, housing an exclusive restaurant within its historic walls. The residence, designed in the Historicist style with dominant Neo-Gothic features, was built circa 1871 by the commercial councillor and philosopher Marc Heymann. Just before the Second World War, its subsequent owner, Emil Phyrkosch, donated the property for social purposes. Over the years, the palace housed a kindergarten, a hospital for German officers, later a hospital for Soviet soldiers, and after 1945, it served as a Folk University. In 2003, it passed into private hands, was meticulously restored, and reopened as a restaurant featuring seven exquisite dining halls. The palace’s first owner was so wealthy that he wished to pave the floor of one of the halls with gold coins. However, he required the Emperor’s permission. The Emperor granted it, but on one condition: the gold coins had to be placed vertically, edge-to-edge. He could not, after all, permit his own image to be trampled underfoot on coins laid flat. As even Heymann could not afford such an extravagance, the plan for a golden floor was ultimately abandoned.