Guzów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wiskitki, within Żyrardów County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is approximately north-west of Wiskitki, north-west of Żyrardów, and west of Warsaw. It is the birthplace of statesman and composer, Michal Kleofas Oginski (1765-1833). History In the late Middle Ages the lands of Guzów were a ducal estate owned by Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia. In the 17th century the settlement was promoted in importance to a rural bailiwick in the possession of Lukasz Opalinski (1612-1666), Grand Marshal of the Crown. After Opalinski the estate changed hands frequently until the early 18th century when the vast 6,000 hectare property came into the Potocki family. Jan Prosper Potocki, starosta of Guzów was briefly the second husband of , for he died early. She became 'starościna' and brought the immense estate with her in her dowry when she married thirdly the highly influential politician and courtier, . He is credited with introducing stability to the place by erecting an extensive late baroque manorial complex, of which only one 1855 print survives. It comprised an Orangery, an Italian garden and a theatre. Here were born his daughter, Józefa and son, Michał Kleofas Ogiński, insurrectionist, statesman and composer. His life was too much caught up in the political turmoil of the country to be focused on the estate. He emigrated. Sugar and cloth give birth to a 'New Town' After the third partition of Poland in 1795, the estate became the possession of its Prussian conquerors. Strictly, it came under the Prussian kingdom's Treasury, but it was in the gift of Frederick William II of Prussia who passed it to his loyal minister, Karl Georg von Hoym. Being based in Silesia, it was an 'inconvenient' gift and he was minded to sell it back to its erstwhile owner, Ogiński's widow, Paula. At this point, her first-born son and jurist Feliks Łubieński, stepped in with a cunning plan. Having already successfully entertained the Prussian king at his Szczytniki estate, he obtained royal backing to swap that estate, together with his other properties at Kalinowa, Sieradz County, for Guzów. This arrangement proved acceptable to the Prussian minister and Łubieński thus wrested control of his mother's former estate without any money having to be exchanged. Meanwhile, in 1797, a new Prussian king ascended the throne and during a tour of his territories, Łubieński and his writer wife,