Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the New Palace can accept 28 people and 8 people in the garden outside at a time. Please book places between 12.00-18.00 on tel: (+48) 52 364 64 14.
Lying 15km east of the historic centre, Ostromecko is a suburb of Bydgoszcz that features a 'palace complex', a picturesque parkland estate with a history dating back to the 13th-century. Of the two palaces you'll find in these grounds, the smaller one is the Baroque Old Palace, also known as the Hunter's Palace or the Mostowski Palace, dating from the mid-18th century. Surrounded by an Italian renaissance garden, its windows and terrace offer a gorgeous view over the Vistula river. The larger one, called the New Palace or Schönborn Palace, is a neoclassical residence built between 1832–1848 and extended in the early 1900s. Both palaces live within a 38-hectare parkland that also features an English renaissance garden and the neo-Romanesquetomb of its former owners, the Schönborn Family.
The Old Palace in the Nature Reserve in Ostromecko.
Aside the guestrooms, which now occupies a section of the new palace, the old palace building now houses an impressive collection of pianos! The collection was created in 1978 on the initiative of Andrzej Szwalbe, the former-director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic, and was moved from their headquarters in the city to the old palace in 2000 (no doubt a lot of re-tuning was required after that!). Indeed, the complex has a fantastic roster of weekly events including music concerts that often feature their prized Noskowski Piano, theatre performances, art exhibitions as well as other conferences and symposia - all organised by the Municipal Culture Center. It's not uncommon to see performances and historical reconstructions take place outside in the park!
Some of the Piano Collection that lives in the Old Palace. Photos by Agnieszka M.
