New article about the court of Katarzyna Barbara Branicka née Radziwiłł (d. 1730)
“They are about to make Versailles out of Białystok”. European aspirations of the court of Katarzyna Barbara Branicka née Radziwiłł (d. 1730)- that’s the newest research published by dr hab. Anna Penkała-Jastrzębska in the Journal “Saeculum Christianum”
This is the first attempt to examine the activity of Katarzyna Barbara Branicka née Radziwiłł and her influence on the private court in Białystok. The reconstruction of the residence was one of the first and, at the same time, the most important projects undertaken by the spouses. The idea of the reconstruction corresponded with the European aspirations of the magnate couple. The article draws on the preserved extensive correspondence of Katarzyna Barbara, supplemented by the letters of her husband, Jan Klemens and mother, Anna Katarzyna Radziwiłł née Sanguszko. The scale of the work carried out and the funds allocated for the extension of the residence brought the intended effect – the residence in Białystok be-came one of the most beautiful of the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth