Posted: 12.01.2023 15:15:00

Palace intrigues

What attracts tourists to the revived Kossovo Castle?

The Puslovsky Palace in one of the smallest towns in the country — Kossovo — was officially put into operation. The implementation of the ambitious project took 17 years. More than 34 million budget roubles were spent on restoration. Today the palace is not only a museum. This is a social and cultural place. Balls, wedding ceremonies and photo sessions are held here, you can rent a room in an atmospheric hotel and have a delicious dinner at the Graf Puslovsky restaurant.


A short ‘golden age’

The Puslovsky Palace, which many are accustomed to calling the Kossovo Castle, was built in the 19th century by the industrialist and art lover Vandalin Puslovsky. The count wanted to make his residence look like a medieval castle-fortress — hence the English neo-Gothic style. The windows look like loopholes. Each of the jagged towers symbolises a certain month of the year, and 365 small turrets symbolise days. The author of the project was the architect František Jaschold. Subsequently, the interior layout of the palace was reconstructed by the architect Władysław Marconi, the interiors were designed by the salon artist Frantisek Zhmurko.


Puslovsky deliberately chose a place for the construction of his residence — near the family estate of Tadeusz Kosciuszko in the Merechevshchina area. Built on an artificial hill, the palace fits perfectly into the surrounding landscape. A greenhouse, a chapel, as well as a terraced park, including the Merechevshchina manor and three artificial ponds, became parts of the palace and park complex. Thanks to the drawings of Napoleon Orda, we know how great it all looked in the time of the Puslovskys.
Alas, the ‘golden age’ of the palace did not last long. After Vandalin, his son Leon inherited, he sold the palace for gambling debts, then the estate was split up until it became the property of the state. During the First World War, the palace was destroyed, the collection of paintings and other valuables disappeared, and the greenhouse was destroyed. During the Great Patriotic War, the building burned down along with the Kosciuszko family nest...

Through the pines to the light of the sun

The history of attempts to revive the Puslovsky Palace dates back a quarter of a century — they wanted to, but failed to reach out to high authorities. Thickets for a long time hid the walls of the palace from the eyes of those passing by on the road from Ruzhany to Kossovo. And only when in 2004, by the decision of the Brest Region Executive Committee, the Kosciuszko estate was restored, they started talking seriously about the revival of the count’s residence. In 2005, Brestrestavratsiya specialists began to create design and estimate documentation. In 2007, the palace and park ensemble was included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage, and a year later — in the state investment programme. Restoration work began in 2008.


The scientific director of the restoration, architect Vladimir Kazakov, came from Brest to Kossovo every week, “When we first got here, the ruins of the castle were surrounded by tall pines. To approach and take measurements of the building, we had to cut down the bush. It was hard to start. There was nothing but walls. The work was both physically and technically difficult. It was all the more joyful to watch how everything here was transformed...”
Financing of the construction was carried out on equal terms — from the republican and regional budgets. Since the beginning of restoration work in 2008, more than 34 million roubles have been allocated to the facility, of which more than 6 million in 2022 alone.

Ball invitation

The facade, stained-glass windows, the interiors of the key halls — the restoration of the palace was carried out in stages. As soon as the premises were commissioned, their arrangement began. Antique furniture and crockery were purchased. At the end of 2017, a temporary museum and exhibition was opened in five halls. And in 2019, the Kossovo Palace and Park Complex, a state cultural institution, was created, which included two facilities — the Puslovsky Palace and the Kosciuszko Memorial Estate Museum. The museum cluster has given a new impetus to the development of tourism potential — on average, the complex is visited annually by 35,000 guests.
There are seven exhibition halls directly in the palace — on the basement, first and second floors. The White, Emerald and Ruby Halls have been restored… The Puslovsky Hotel has 6 rooms for 19 people. A small cosy restaurant awaits guests every day, here you can hold banquets and weddings. All this was shown to the guests after the red ribbon was cut at the opening ceremony. The promenade left no one indifferent. It remains to be hoped that tourists will enter a new point on the map of the Brest Region into their navigator and will not pass by.
Of course, balls are associated with the palace. Polonaise, waltz, krakowiak, quadrille, mazurka… An obligatory component is an orchestra. At one time, among the guests of the palace were Napoleon Orda, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Józef Piłsudski, Vaclau Lastouski …
In the revived Puslovsky Palace, a regional New Year’s ball was timed to coincide with the official opening. By the way, it was held there for the second time. As on the eve of 2022, the best representatives of the universities of the Brest Region were invited. Perhaps someday they will write in guidebooks that future scientists, writers, statesmen waltzed in the palace...
The restoration of the palace is completed, but that’s not all. In 2023, work is planned in the park area with the construction of thematic farmsteads, as well as the reconstruction of the system of adjacent lakes.


BY THE WAY

The Puslovsky Palace is one of the great keepers of legends in the Belarusian lands. They say that in the Main Hall the floor was made of double glass, and aquarium fish swam there. And in the Winter Garden there lived a lion, which was unleashed at night. Only men were allowed to enter the Black Hall — it was for gambling. The palace had 132 rooms, none of which was similar to the other. Thanks to the system of corridors and the special placement of windows, sunlight flooded one of the rooms for 2.5 days a year. Those days the owners celebrated ‘Room Day’.
During the excavations during the restoration work, only one myth has been debunked so far — about the underground passage between the Kossovo and Ruzhany palaces with ‘a width of a carriage and a trio of horses’ and a length of almost 25 kilometres. There was none. And it couldn’t be!

By Valentina Kozlovich
PHOTOS BY BELTA, PAVEL BOGUSH