Osiemnastowieczny dwór w Kotlinie

The manorhouse in Kotlin was built in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, and is a unique example of a Polish Baroque gentry residence. Its rank is testified by a number of facts. It is a timber-framed skeletal construction, with orick infilling. The edifice has interesting carpentry with a differentiated system of linking the wooden elements and an original roof truss. This type of wooden manorhouse, in contrast to the more frequently encountered construction, is not to be found outside Greater Poland, and is represented by two extant objects. The manor in Kotlin, with two alcoves on the side of the facade, is typical for the former Commonwealth. Moreover, its form was inspired by palace architecture as evidenced in the triangular ground plan, the pronounced projection of the drawing room and the fragmentary closing of the windows. The attic beam contains a rhymed inscription made by the builder: „Maciey Nowak built this manor not according to the curren: fashion of architects but with his own skill and for comfort; his inscribed name will be held in high esteem in Kotlin for this achievement”. The damp terrain caused a rapid deterioration of the wooden elements of the construction. Restoration conducted prior to 1880 replaced small parts of the walls with brick, plastered the elevation and adapted the attice for residential purposes. At the same time, the addition of a projection in the facade, new roofs on the alcoves and the articulation of the facade introduced features similar to a Late Baroque palace. The present-day state of the manor is highly unsatisfactory. Plaster on the wooden construction and the overtaxing of the attic considerably affected the outer walls. Conservation work should now follow two courses: it must strengthen the bearing force of the outer walls by adding a brick wall on the inside, and simultaneously, lighten the burden borne by the truss by pulling down the unnecessary walls in the attic. The next operation should consist of removing the nineteenth — and twentieth-century plaster from the elevation, and replacing as well as supplementing the devastated wooden elements. This stage will be followed by the restoration of the original legible outline of the frame construction of the manorhouse.