Palace

The palace in Karwice is one of the best-preserved examples of residential architecture in the municipality of Drawsko Pomorskie. It was built in the first half of the 19th century by the von Brockhausen family. Toward the end of the 19th century, the village and the palace passed into the hands of the von Lepel family, and in the 1920s, it became the property of Friedrich Volkmann. The palace owes its current appearance to a renovation carried out in 1865–66 and an expansion in 1971. It is a three-story Neo-Gothic (Victorian) manor house with a rectangular floor plan, featuring two projections and a tower, and rich in architectural detail. Until recently, the palace served as a tourist attraction and housed the Military Training and Recreation Center, open to both military personnel and the general public. Currently, the building is closed to tourists and used exclusively by the military. Due to the building’s military purpose, visitors can only view the palace from the outside and explore its surroundings. Unfortunately, it is not possible to enter the palace itself. An interesting fact about the palace is that in 1994, the then-President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, accompanied by the highest-ranking representatives of the Polish Army, had a meal here that went down in the history of the Third Republic as the “Drawsko dinner.” The president’s meeting with the generals led to the dismissal of the Minister of National Defense. Although the dinner actually took place in the neighboring military mess hall rather than in the palace itself, the story of the “Drawsko dinner” has become permanently associated with the palace in Karwice. The palace features comfortable hotel rooms, a ballroom, and conference rooms. The palace is picturesquely situated on a high slope overlooking Lake Lubie and is surrounded by a large and interesting landscape park featuring exotic tree species. Both the palace and the park are listed as historic monuments. At the foot of the lakeside slope lies a beach with piers and a storage facility for water sports equipment. In the northwestern, wooded part of the park stands the solitary gravestone of the estate’s last owner, Richard Volkmann, who died in 1942. The 4-kilometer-long Dzikowo–Karwice nature trail ends in the palace park.