About the forgotten Sapieha Palace in Dubno in Podlasie

Abstract

The Sapieha family is one of the most powerful magnate families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, originating from the lands of today’s Belarus and Russia. One of them, Iwan Sapieha, became the first voivode of Podlasie. In 1512, he became the owner of the village of Dubno, where a manor complex operated from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, which was ruined and forgotten at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In the years 2006–2010 and 2013, archaeological excavations were carried out (among others thanks to subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund under the Neighborhood Program Poland-Belarus-Ukraine INTERREG IIIA/TACIS CBC 2004-2006 and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. for non-invasive, geomorphological and natural research, aerial photography and relevant source queries.

This work has produced very interesting results. It turned out that the relics of this residence hidden underground were discovered. As a result of the conducted archaeological and architectural works, this residential complex consisting of a palace, a chapel, and other auxiliary buildings, such as an inn, orangery, or a storehouse, can be reconstructed to a large extent. However, the most spectacular result was the discovery of the palace, known as the Great House. During the research, the plan of the tenement house on the ground floor level and a vault located in the basement were recognized.

The described Kamienica Wielka is a manor house typical of the 17th century. However, it is one of the first objects in Podlasie that were discovered in a place where only fragments of pottery and brick debris were traces of its former glory on the surface of the earth. Thus, archaeological research brought back the forgotten residence of the Sapieha, one of the most eminent families of the Polish Nobility, to the “scientific circulation” and brought it back to the “scientific circuit”.