Ruzhany Palace (Belarusian: палац у Ружанах, Polish: Pałac w Różanie) is a ruined palace compound in Ruzhany village, Pruzhany District, Brest Region, Western Belarus. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Ruzhany, then called Różany, was the main seat of the senior line of the Sapieha noble family, known as the Sapiehas of Ruzhany [pl]. The castle is currently undergoing systematic reconstruction, with the palace ornate gate and entry building being already restored.
Ruzhany Palace was rebuilt as a grand Neoclassical residence in the 1770s by Aleksander Michał Sapieha, employing the services of the architect Jan Samuel Becker of Saxony, who set the palace in an English park landscape. Aside from the palace, there was a theatre (1784–88), an orangery and several other outbuildings. Becker also designed the local church (rebuilt in the 1850s).
The reconstructed palace gate in 2012
By the time of King Stanisław II's visit in 1784, work on the palace had been suspended. The Sapieha estates were nationalised in the aftermath of the November Uprising (1831). Three years later, the palace compound was sold to be used as a textile mill and weaving factory.
The ruins of the Ruzhany Palace and theatre in 2007
In 1914 the palace was accidentally set on fire by factory workers. The First World War and subsequent financial hardships prevented the building's restoration until 1930, however the partially restored palace became a ruin again within fifteen years, a casualty of the Second World War. The ornate palace gate survives and has recently been restored.
See also
Biaroza monastery, a family vault of the Sapieha family not far from Ruzhany
Halshany Castle, another ruined Sapieha residence in Belarus
Black Ruthenia
Volhynia
Red Ruthenia
Podolia
