Trzebiechów Commune

However, it boasts very interesting historic buildings and original landscape parks. In the centre of the village there is a monumental palace of the von Reuss family. It was erected in the place of a former storied manor house from the turn of the 17th c., which belonged to the Troschke family, the previous owners of Trzebiechów. In 1861 the manor was built by the Duke Henry VII von Reuss. The main building, designed by Viktor Rumpelmeyer, was erected in the 1970s in the style of a French-like residence. The main entrance is at the southern side of the palace. To the north the palace is surrounded with a 12-hectare English-style park. The main elements of the spatial composition are trees (planted individually and in groups), clearings, ponds, canals, vantage point hills, gazebos and sculptures. It is worth mentioning that in the park there is a plaque which commemorates two visits by Otto von Bismarck to Trzebiechów. He was friends with the Duke Henry von Reuss.

Let us devote a few words to the Duke and his family. The Duke was a very rich man. In 1876 he married Marie Alexandrine, the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a daughter of the Grand Duke Karl Alexander. It was especially during their reign that the Brandenburg village of Trzebiechów flourished. The family also founded a new church in thr nearby village of Podlegórz and equipped it with it with a Sauer’s organ. The organ was funded by the Duke on the pretext of the silver anniversary of his wedding. In the church one must also see the strikingly beautiful stained glass windows, which – they say – are the most beautiful ones in the whole of the  Zielonogórsko-Gorzowska Diocese.

The owners of the palace also took care of the villagers’ health and founded the first health centre. Towards the end of the 19th century the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrine brought to Trzebiechów a convent of sisters to care for the sick and founded a small hospital – Sophienhaus. It was also on the Duchess’ initiative that the physiotherapeutic and dietary sanatorium was built in 1903 ( It was erected opposite the palace, in the place where peasants’ cottages once used to be ). They say the real reason for building the sanatorium was her daughter’s tuberculosis. The main building and the so-called ‘Doctor’s House’ were designed by Max Schindler, an architect from Zwickau.
The von Reuss family resided in the palace until 1945. Then the residence was abandoned. In 1979 – 1983, thanks to the efforts of the headmaster of the Commune School, it was rebuilt and adapted for educational purposes. Nowadays, the palace houses a primary and a junior high school. In 2003, when the County Governor held the first conference on Henry van de Velde, female descendants of the Duke’s family participated in it. They were surprised at and expressed their satisfaction with the proper maintenance and the good condition that the building was in. However, the palace is only part of the overall complex, which also includes a former riding hall, stables, outhouses and the park. The oldest part of the palace complex is the riding hall dating from 1876. Thanks to the funds from the State Sports and Tourism Office, in the 1990s it underwent major renovation to become one of the most beautiful sports arenas in the Lubuskie Region.

In Trzebiechów itself one is recommended to see St. Mary’s Church of Assumption, erected in 1840 in the place of a former 14th- c. one, reconstructed in 1654. It was designed in the firm of an eminent German representative of Noe-Classicism in architecture, Karl Friedrich Schinkle and built in the Neo-Classicistic style. 

In terms of nature, the following places of interest in the commune are worth mentioning: ‘The Radowice Nature Reserve’, established on the strength of a regulation by the Lubuskie Province Governor in March 2000. It covers the area of about 55-ha and is situated in Trzebiechów and Sulechów communes. It is a geologically diversified marshy ash and alder Riparian forest with oak and hornbeam groves. One can encounter many very rare species of birds there, such as the green woodpecker. Near Sadowa, in the drainage basin of the Obrzyca River, there is also wading birds’ habitation. It must be added that it is in Sadowa that the water intake for Zielona Góra is located.