Cellar. Castle Baths. Steam room

Historical names: The Steam 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, and hydrotherapy. 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 steam room is one of two additional smaller baths entered through two metal doors located in the southern wall. The door on the right leads to the "steam room" or Turkish steam bath, directly behind the door to the toilet. The steam room has a tall interior on a rectangular plan with a segmented barrel vault lined with large rectangular ceramic tiles - chocolate-coloured plinth, honey walls and a white vault. The floor is made of small square tiles - chocolate, cream, white, and black in a rectangular pattern framed by a square border. There are two stepped shelves-couches at the southern wall - a broad lower one and a narrower one above it, covered with large rectangular chocolate-coloured tiles supported by pillars covered with honey petals. In the south wall, there is a small round hole for supplying steam in the sidewalls and four vents framed by a metal ring inside with an airflow regulator designed as a camera aperture. There are probably two open ducts between the tiles - for the radiator that used to be here. A drain grate is in the centre of the floor. All metal elements are in gold.

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, pp. 86, 88 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