with the BBC Polish Section. However, in 1944, it became subject to a land reform and taken over by the Nazi occupiers of Poland. After the Second world war the estate, as all other country estates, was nationalised. Antoni Sobański never returned to his homeland and died in London. The palace and the landscape garden complex Andrzej Ogiński's 18th-century substantial brick manor house gave way in the next century to a 19th-century confection. The then owner, Feliks Sobański, commissioned Polish architect Władysław Hirschel to recreate a property reminiscent of French Loire Valley castles. The landscape architects Walerian Kronenberg and Franciszek Szanio became the designers of a park and gardens in the 'English style'. After its use as a military hospital for the nearby front-line, the palace and the grounds were severely damaged. In the interwar period there was some renovation but during the Second World War the palace interior and furnishings were again plundered. After the war the palace was used as quarters for the employees of the local sugar factory. In 1996 the Sobański family succeeded in having the palace complex restituted to it, albeit as a virtual ruin. After many years of neglect the property was in need of complete restoration, as were the grounds. The first building to be refurbished was the old palace chapel, dedicated to St. Felix of Valois and used as a parish church. With help from public heritage funds and hiring out the venue as a film set, work on the restoration is finally under way guided by a firm of specialist architects. Trivia In its pre-1880 French-style reconstruction, the Łubieński 18th-century manor at Guzów is said to have been the inspiration for Stanisław Moniuszko's famous opera, The Haunted Manor - Straszny Dwór - 1865. Vying for the opera's original setting, is another former Łubieński manor, given up by the family in 1797, at Kalinowa, but circumstantially it seems less likely. Subsequently, Feliks Hilary Sobański was a member of the 'Moniuszko' music society in Warsaw. See also Sobański Palace Zyrardow References Gallery Figures associated with Guzów Guzów and environs External links Pałac Sobańskich w Guzowie - official site Villages in Żyrardów County