HISTORY OF A BEAUTIFUL PALACE

Kopice is a name of a small village, near my hometown Grodków. It would be a very average village if there wasn’t this palace there. Unfortunately, today the castle is a ruin, which requires a huge amount of money to restore it to the condition it has 100 years ago. It is very sad that people ruined such a great place. In the beginning of XX century it looked like this:

Let me tell you something about its history. Since 1360  Kopice was the seat of the family von Borsnitz, than it was in the hands of the family von Beess (1450). In 1534 it was possessed by the capitular of the Cathedral of Wroclaw, Baltzar von Neckern, and since 1751 by silesian noble family von Sierstorpff. There is a great story connected with this palace, which I am about to tell you. It is about  how the poor girl was heir to huge wealth and countess.  Joanna Schaffgotsch von Schomberg-Godulla came from a poor, silesian family.  Her father worked in zinc-works , which belonged to the largest Silesian entrepreneur Charles Godulla, called “ King of Zinc”.  Joanna’s mother worked as a maid in Charles palace. Godulla was a very rich and wise man, but he had no family and no heir to the fortune, which was the largest in the history of Silesia. Joanna lost her father very early, so her mother was forced to take her to the palace, because there was no one to take care of her while she was working.  Supposedly once when Godulla worked in his office, a little Joanna went over to him, showing no fear or respect for the somber and proud master. Charles was so surprised and captured of her directness, he decided to take care of her. Since then Joanna grew up in his house. Charles loved her very much and treated her like his family. In 1848 Godulla fell seriously ill. The day before his death he made a will in court. It turned out that Godulla wrote in his will that all his property after his death belongs to six-year old Joanna. Godulla’s family tried to overthrow his will, and when that failed, they sent threats against Joanna, even organized attempts on her life. She run away to Wrocław, where she met Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch , fell in love and married him. Marriage with Hans meant the end of hassles associated with the will. They moved into the palace in Kopice and lived happy ever after.

Today this “palace on the water” is a ruin. There is no trace of the sculptures and paintings, books and armor that once delighted the finest European aristocracy. Although it managed to survive World War II,  in 1956, it was plundered for the last time and then set on fire. Since then there was only one man who tried to rebuilt it, but he died. At present the palace looks like this:

Thank you for your attention! :)

Blog post by Angela Mrożek.