The article is the second in a series devot ed to elements of the manor house and park complex of Dylewo. Its objective is to describe the history of the palace as well as plans to expand it. Originating in the 1850s, the building was fi rst expanded at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to the initiative of the then owner, art collector Franz Rose. The investor’s death in 1912 interrupted construction work. The original design documentation was most probably lost to the fi re of 1945. Of the building, all that has survived up to this day are distorted side avant–corps. Excavations conducted in 2002 by a team of archeologists from the University of Warsaw in the collapsed cellars of the central part of the manor house bore fruit in the discovery of damaged sculptures by the highly esteemed Italian sculptor Adolfo Wildt that had been a part of the former collection.

The article serves to present the survey documentation and study results on the transformation of the building as well as to analyze the hypothesis involving the complex, affi rming that the state preceding 1945 was not the intended form and that on the basis of survey measurements and studies it is possible to be relatively certain in reconstructing both its appearance in the interwar period and suggesting the never built planned fi nal architectural concept for the palace. The potential connections between the fi nal form of the residence and ideas gaining signifi cance in Germany in the early 20th century have also been traced.

Thanks to a juxtaposition of measurement data with archival photographs and drawings, the appearance of the manor house from before the fi re has been recreated. The authors found the original architectural drawings of the art gallery from 1910, stored in the Vorarlberg Museum archives in Bregenz, and created a digital model of the pavilion on their basis. As a result of a comparative analysis of selected manor houses and palaces of East Prussia and studies into other designs by the architect responsible for the remodeling, the hypothetical planned form of the residence was developed. A compilation of subsequent phases of construction has been prepared based on the reconstruction.

The conducted measurements and research expanded the understanding of the role of the palace as the main dominant feature of the intended spatial layout of the estate. Gaps in knowledge regarding the designers, the authors of the expansion, have been fi lled. The shape of the building before the fi re of 1945 has been recreated. Also presented is the probable form of the palace expansion, including the raising of its height, an unfi nished project abandoned in 1912 following the death of the investor, a project that would have made possible the transformation a provincial manor house into a major center of European culture. The recreation of the palace was conducted against a background of tendencies taking place during this period in the German cultural circle. It also explains the reason for the shocking lack of stylistic cohesiveness seen in the planned architecture of the residence. The results of this research went far beyond the early expectation of the authors, confi rming the thesis put forward to a degree greater than what was anticipated.