Antoniny Palace

History

In the 1760s, Barbara Sanguszko granted the village and estate of Holodky for long-term use to Ignatius Malchevsky, who was married to her sister Antonina and served as regent of the royal chancellery. The couple settled there and decided to build a palace and garden. Ignatius named the palace after his wife Antonina, and the village became known as Antoniny. At the start of the 19th century, the estate returned to the Sanguszko family, who renovated it into a splendid residence.

When Maria Klementyna Sanguszko married Alfred Józef Potocki, the palace passed to the Potocki family. After her husband's death, she transferred it to her younger son, Józef Mikołaj Potocki. Józef, a wealthy magnate and avid hunter, rebuilt the palace into a neo-baroque residence in several phases: the Austrian architects Fellner & Helmer worked on it in the 1870s; the French architect François Arveuf added a guest wing and redesigned the interior between 1897 and 1903; and Ferdinand Fellner returned between 1905 and 1908 to add a new entrance.

The palace became known for its stud of Arabian horses, its cellars of exotic liquors, reception halls decorated with hunting trophies, and a large art collection including paintings, porcelain, and around 20,000 volumes in the library. The surrounding garden and park covered about six thousand hectares, and Józef created one of Europe's largest menagerie parks there, breeding animals not native to the European climate.