Cellar. Castle Baths. Gymnastics Cabinet

Historical names: The Exercise Room
Time of construction: 1928
Architects: Tadeusz Dachowski(?)

Description:
The most modern undertaking in the Łańcut castle of the last ordinate of Alfred Antoni Potocki in the 20th-century interwar period was the construction of the so-called Roman Baths in 1928 in part of the basement. They were accessed from the northern, single-story corridor. Another way of communication between the baths and all floors was through the elevator. This recreational complex, consisting of vaulted chambers lined with porcelain tiles or wainscot and embellished with painted decorations, was intended for broadly understood physical renewal: exercise, massage, hydro- and electrotherapy. They have a whole system of modern bathtubs and balneological and gymnastic equipment. The baths were decorated exquisitely: they are accessed by wide, sumptuous stairs. The waiting room and the bar with painted decorations on the walls and ceilings, with heavy curtains between the rooms, are discreetly illuminated by wall lamps. There are leather club armchairs and sofas, and the bar has a tall counter and stools. The ordinate invited his guests to the baths - being there became one of the attractions in Łańcut. The Exercise Room is an interior on a rectangular plan with a barrel vault, with a high, wooden panelling and three wooden lintels in the southern wall (with an opening leading to the bathhouse) with a Pilawa in the middle of a pseudo rosette in the cornice. At the western wall, a high, two-winged wall wardrobe with two doors with a Pilawa in the middle of a pseudo rosette in the cornice. On the opposite wall, there is a console with three drawers; above it - a rectangular mirror with a Pilawa in the middle of a pseudo rosette in the cornice. The vault and the two front walls have a rich, colourful painting decoration consisting mainly of neo-Mannerist elements and in the upper strip of the neoclassical vault with a fan ornament and fantastic sea creatures. A wooden floor. The permanent equipment is a device for an "electric bath" in the form of a free-standing hexagonal glass "barrel" and two upholstered sofas on stylised wooden legs.

Cholewianka-Kruszyńska Aldona, Łańcut. Dzieje rezydencji Potockich, Bosz, 2009, pp. 125-126 Paterak Marta, Łaźnie i elektroterapia w zamku w Łańcucie, Biuletyn GBL, No. 349, 1994, p. 83 Piotrowski Józef, Zamek w Łańcucie: zwięzły opis dziejów i zbiorów, Lviv 1933, p. 45 Silber J.S, /Inwentarz fideikomisowy/, 1932, typescript, MZŁ Archive, R/55, k.96

Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska