Górka Palace

It is situated in the southwest corner of the Old Market Square, in a square formed by the four streets: Wodna, Klasztorna, Kozia and Świętosławska. The palace was created in the 1540's following a general reform of several gothic townhouses carried out by the Great Poland governor Andrzej Górka.

The Górka town residence united late Gothic and Renaissance characteristics. Its most attractive feature was the small colonnaded courtyard.

The Górkas, beginning from Andrzej, were supporters of the Reformation and the palace soon became known as a Lutheran centre. In 1592, after the death of the family's last male representative, Stanisław, the palace was inherited by the Czarnkowskis. Four years later it became property of the city, and in 1605 the city sold it to the Benedictine sisters.

After the closure of the convent in 1803 the building housed a secondary school for girls, and after 1880 it was restored as a tenement house. The structure was razed to the ground during the war and rebuilt between 1960-67. Based on old drawings, the elevation was restored to its 17th-18th century form.

In the courtyard the Renaissance colonnades with sandstone columns were revealed. One remnant of the old residence is the original, richly ornamented Renaissance portal made of sandstone in 1548. It leads into the courtyard from Klasztorna Street. The Renaissance portal in Wodna Street was reconstructed in the 1960's. Today the Górka Palaces houses the Archaeological Museum.

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