A short history of Lanckoroński- Urbański Palace in Tartakiv

The Palace of Lanckoroński-Urbański is an architectural monument of the 19th-

century.
The village of Tartakov is located in the Nadbuzhans’ka basin of Galicia, in Western
Ukraine (about 10 km east of Sokal, 94 km northeast of Lviv).

The name of the village comes from sawmills called locally tartak. The first mention
of Tartakiv dates back to 1415. Since then, it had gradually morphed to a town. In
1748, King of Poland Augustus III granted the town Magdeburg rights. In the center
of Tartakiv, a town hall was built with a market square. The famous fairs several
were held there several times a year, where even luxury items from the East could be
bought: Persian carpets and Arab horses. These fairs had such great fame even in the
late 19th century that, as it was well known, Franz Joseph I of Austria, during one of
his visits to Galicia, came to Tartakiv to buy Arabian horses for himself.

In 1587, Tartkiv belonged to the Trzinski noble family of Rawicz coat of arms. It was
the Trzinski family who built a Romanesque church in Tartakiv (1603). The entire
interior of the church is lavishly covered with mural paintings, dates to the 18th
century. It worth seeing because of the mural of Tartakiv under siege, by famous
artist Stanislav Stroinski, and other wall paintings, probably created by his student
Thomas Gertner. From 1764 till 1945 the miraculous icon of the Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin Mary was kept in this church.

After a string of successions, Tartakiv became the dowry of Zofia Kalinowska and
was given to her husband, Felix “Revera” Potocki, who was a Polish noble of Silver
Piława coat of arms. Their son Kazimierz Felix Potocki inherited the family
residence – fortified Tartakiv castle, surrounded by high stone walls and a water-
filled moat. In his time Tartakiv castle became a place where noblemen from all over
Poland and other countries gathered. There were rare books, paintings by outstanding
artists, and a mirror room. Even Italian opera artists used to come here. The Tartakiv
was inherited by his son, Franciszek Salezy Potocki, the wealthiest magnate of his
time. After the death of a magnate, his only son, Stanisław Szczęsny (Feliks) Potocki
became the owner of the estate. But he handed over his family’s possessions in
Eastern Galicia to Adam Poninski in exchange for a pledge to pay tax debts.
However, Poninski did not comply with the agreement and the estate passed to the
Austrian Government.

At the end of the 19th century, the former Potocki estates were bought by the
Lanckoroński family. In 1896, count Zbigniew Lanckoroński engaged the Lviv
architect Vincent Ravsky (junior) to build a new palace in the French neo-baroque
style on the foundations of the old castle. The construction of the Tartakiv Palace was
inspired by Casino de Paris in Monaco. The Lanckoroński’ coat of arms Zadora is
still can be seen above the palace’ balcony. The tiles of the first floor were probably
made at the Lviv factory of Ivan Levinsky. The park that surrounds the palace partly
retains its original outline from the 18th century. The authentic well-forged entrance
gate was made by the Lviv locksmith Ivan Stankiewicz.

The only son of the Lanckoroński, Przemysław, died as a child, being 9 years old. He
was buried at the local cemetery, where the monument with a sculpture of a sad angel
and an inscription: «Let you will be done» still can be seen. After his
death, Lanckoroński decided to leave Tartakiv.

Zbigniew’s Lanckoroński sister was married to lawyer Jan Urbański and lived in a
small town called Rava-Russka. Urbański family bought the Tartakiv estate
from Lanckoroński and therefore became owners of Tartakiv and nearby villages.
The gardener Anton Danylyuk and his family arrived with them. He nursed the
flower beds, rare trees, and bushes in the park.

There was a chapel at the end of the park, where both Urbański were buried.
Unfortunately, during the Soviet era, this chapel was completely broken. The last
owner of the palace till 1939 or 1941 was Maria Urbańska (She was arrested by
Russian soldiers and taken to Siberia, and her final fate is unknown.)
During the First World War, officers of the Russian army lived in the palace. Photos
from 1914-1918 show soldiers drinking vodka at the bar table, surrounded by luxury
furniture and interior elements. It is known that the palace was robbed during the I
and II Word Wars of the 20th century, but the building itself was well-preserved.

After the Second World War, the palace housed the collective farm office, and since
the 1950s the school was located there. But the fire in 1996 destroyed the interior of
the palace and the roof. The ruins of the palace and the abandoned park had been in
decline for a long time.

In summer 2019 Ukrainian Charitable

Foundations, Sofos and Spadshchyna.ua (Heritage.ua) thanks to the support of the
Ukrainian Cultural Fund and the ex-leader of the well-known Ukrainian rock-
band Tartak Olexandr Polozhynskyj conducted an educational and cultural camp on
the territory of the palace complex. Within 8 days, volunteers and local people
cleaned up the place and developed a concept for the revitalization of the Tartakiv
palace. The first steps have already been taken.