History

18th-century palace in Zbożenna, rebuilt multiple times, owes its final shape to renovations in the 1920s.

Zbożenna, like the nearby villages of Skrzynno and Skrzyńsko, was associated with the Dunin family according to the earliest records. In 1508, the family estate was divided, and Zbożenna came into the possession of Paweł Dunin Zbożeński.

In the second half of the 18th century, the estate in Zbożenna was acquired by Karol Szydłowski of the Lubicz coat of arms, starosta of Uszyce. He built a palace in the classical style and made it his residence.
This was the period of greatest splendor for these lands. In the beautiful park there was a game reserve, as well as a theater and a chapel. Thanks to Wiktoria, wife of Karol Szydłowski, who loved music, a court orchestra was maintained.

After Szydłowski's death in 1811, the palace, changing owners, gradually fell into ruin.

General of the Napoleonic armies Jaen – Baptiste Mallet de Grandeville, the second husband of Wiktoria Szydłowska, rarely stayed at the estate due to military service. He permanently settled in Zbożenna after being released from service in 1837, 7 years after Wiktoria's death.

The next owner of Zbożenna was Waleria, daughter of the general from his second marriage with Adela Krasinska.

Waleria Marrene, primo voto Morzkowska, a writer and publicist, traveled extensively, was not often a guest at Zbożenna, and settled permanently in Warsaw in 1877. She authored over twenty prose works, published in "Przegląd Tygodniowy," and was also a translator of Ibsen's dramas.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Zbożenna came into the possession of Kazimierz Witwicki, owner of the Kamienna Cast Iron Foundry in Skarżysko Kamienna.

The manor was gradually restored. In 1920, a terrace was added on the south side of the building, supported by arched arcades. The function of the basement rooms was changed.

In the final years of World War II, management of the manor was entrusted to Franciszek Kasztelowicz, a relative of the owner.

After the entry of Russian troops into Zbożenna in 1944, Kazimierz Witwicki was arrested. He remained the owner of the manor until 1945.

After the war, the estate was nationalized. The land was distributed among the people who worked on the estate due to the agricultural reform. Part of the manor was designated for housing and part housed a police station. In subsequent years, there was an elementary school, an agricultural technical school, and a creative work center, followed by a recreation center.
After a fire in the post-war period, the building's roof was raised and equipped with dormers, which changed the attic's functional use.

In the front part of the park, beneath an oak tree, there once stood a statue of the Virgin Mary. The casting was made on the orders of Kazimierz Witwicki. After the war, when the manor housed a school, an order was issued to destroy the statue. The then caretaker, Mr. Leśniewski, hid it from the authorities, and the statue is now in his garden.