Komarno. The Lantskoronski Palace. What Do the Ruins Tell?

On the western outskirts of the town of Komarno in the Lviv region there is a place steeped in centuries of historical events, but the impression left by contemplating these man-made masterpieces is a depressing one.

Komarno, Lviv region. The Lantskoronski Palace before 1939

The park, laid out in the 17th century, has the status of a monument of landscape-gardening art, yet you will not manage to enjoy the picturesque scenery and restore your vital strength in this green oasis.

 

The thickets, the rubbish dump and the devastated manor estate are frightening as the consequence of humankind's destructive activity.

Komarno. The north wall of the Lantskoronski Palace

Komarno. The park on the grounds of the Lantskoronski estate

This is not a ghost but a photograph of the palace built at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries by the Polish nobleman Józef Lantskoronski. For some time a school was housed in the building.

Komarno. The Lantskoronski Palace before 1939

Just a few years ago this two-storey building with columns and an attic above the arched entrance still kept its sturdy walls. Now the central part has been smashed and taken apart for bricks, while the corner remnants hold out against the boors and heathens. The estate of the Polish magnates has been turned into one continuous rubbish heap. It seems the residents of Komarno and neighbouring Peremozhne (Khlopy before 1946) are competing to pile up junk on the ruins of the landowners' estate. The aristocrats' large courtyard was once fitted with lanterns and flower beds, but now there are traces of vandals and treasure hunters everywhere.

Komarno. The corner walls of the Lantskoronski Palace

Komarno. Rubbish heaps on the grounds of the estate

Ancient larches, lindens, ash trees and beeches mourn the palace's former grandeur and sadly watch the appalling scene at the ruined estate.

 

Komarno. Ancient larches by the ruins

The heir to the family nest was Karolina Lantskoronska — a teacher, an art historian, a graduate and lecturer of Lviv University, and a concentration-camp prisoner. During the Second World War the last representative of the noble family worked as a nurse and provided humanitarian aid. In Peremozhne, the former Khlopy, this patroness commissioned the design and financed the construction of the Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God. Zolochiv Castle, too, received resources from the Lantskoronski foundation for arranging its exhibitions. The former owner of the estate lived to 104, and before she passed away she asked to be brought a handful of soil from the family estate, with which Karolina was buried in Rome.

 

Karolina Lantskoronska on the terrace of the palace in Rozdil. Photo, 1938. Archive of Science of the PAN and PAU

Stacked sacks and felled wild undergrowth show that a communal clean-up of the grounds took place in the courtyard, but a benefactor like Lantskoronska has not been found again.

Komarno. The ruins of the palace