History of the site

Klucze is referenced for the first time in the 1374 sources as a half royal and equestrian iron-making settlement. In the 16th century, it finally passed into the hands of the nobility and turned into a grange. The most rapid development of the estate occurred at the end of the 18th century. It had iron ore mines and glass works as well as burgeoning craft. At that time, the owners of Klucze built a new manor. From 1794 until the defeat of the 1863 January Uprising, the property belonged to the Bukowski family. And after its confiscation by the tsarist government, it was purchased by an industrial tycoon, Count Jan Renard. In the 19th century, the Klucze estate went into the hands of the German industrialist Ludwig Mauwe (1887), who started to develop large-scale industrial production locally. The Hrabia Renard mining enterprise, Mauwe being one of the shareholders and director general (1875), led the region in modern technological solutions. The industrialist was also a co-owner of a paper factory built in Klucze in the years 1895-1897. In 1905 the pillared manor house in Klucze burnt down completely. In its place, Mauwe built a new one: a towered palace with a wooden loggia (the latest fashion of the time), and soon after another residence for his wife Selma. After Mauwe’s death, his daughter Wera and her husband Borys Dietl took over the management of the estate. In the interwar period, the palace was surrounded by a large park with a fountain and a fish pond; the farm buildings were scattered nearby. After WW2, in 1945, the property was parcelled out, and the Dietl family was forced to leave Poland.  

Site description

The Dietl Palace is located in the centre of Klucze within the relics of the former park. The eclectic-like building from the beginning of the 20th century is built in the historicist style. It alludes to the Italian neo-Renaissance and Swiss spa resort architecture.  It is a brick, two-storey building, partially with basement, with a habitable loft. The building has diverse annexes and outbuildings, a turret topped with an obelisk cupola with a wooden, openwork base and terraces with wooden, openwork balustrades. The asymmetrical façades are plastered, with rustication in some corners. The window openings are framed with plaster, profiled bands and closed with prominent cornices; the window sills feature a frieze with rectangular panels. The building has a sheet hipped roof with pediments; it has small five dormers on the east and west side. The building is not in use, and some of the doors and windows in the former pillar porch on the ground floor have been secured with OSB boards. The interior has essentially preserved its original spatial layout. In the west parts of the palace, representative halls with bevels and rosettes as well as original door joinery and a wooden staircase have survived. The building is neglected and needs urgent renovation.

The building can be viewed from the outside.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 03/11/2015

Bibliography

• Decyzja nr A-1234/M w sprawie wpisania dobra kultury do rejestru zabytków nieruchomych województwa małopolskiego z dnia 27-10-2007, MWKZ Kraków Dziechciarz O., Przewodnik po ziemi olkuskiej. Gminy Klucze i Pilica, vol. II, Olkusz 2000
• Kiryk F., Zarys dziejów osadnictwa, [in:] Dzieje Olkusza i regionu olkuskiego, vol. I, Warszawa – Kraków 1978
• Libicki P., Dwory i pałace wiejskie w Małopolsce i na Podkarpaciu, Poznań 2012
• Sypień J., Dwory szlacheckie ziemi olkuskiej, Olkusz 2013