Late-Baroque manor house of the Dobay family – Dubovica
The municipality of Dubovica was home to the Dobay family, a side branch of the Tekulov family, which gave the municipality its name. Prior the abolition of serfdom, the Dobay family built several aristocratic residences here. Today, the only one standing is a Baroque manor house which houses a unique collection of paintings.
The manor house was built on the left bank of the Dubovický brook, in the northern part of the municipality. It was built as a large five-wing longitudinal structure with a centrally located risalit in the late Baroque style. The building was built prior the 70s of the 18th century, as the interior paintings were completed in 1782. The original manor house consisted of five sections with a rectangular floor plan with a total length of 35 m and a width of 10 m. The middle wing with risalit had two more wings on the sides. The main, eastern, façade featured a gable, rich decorations and pediments above the windows. The interior featured trough and Prussian vaults. The area of the risalit gable and the entrance hall were decorated with murals. Other vaults were also covered with ornamental paintings. The building was topped by a high-pitched mansard roof with gabled roofs on the wings. The building was repaired several times. After World War II, the one entire wing was demolished. At the end of the 1970s, a vestibule was added to the building, damaging its original features. To this day, 2/3 of the primary building have been preserved (without the northern wing with two transverse tracts).
The paintings in the original entrance hall are the most valuable. At the time the ceiling was lowered, the paintings moved to the “attic” where they remained untouched. Other wall paintings were, unfortunately, removed. The paintings cover the entire area of the trough vault and parts of the walls above the secondary flat ceiling. Their author is Jozef Lerch (1751-1828), a native of Spišská Sobota and a burgher from Levoča. The painted area can be divided into two main parts: the illusory architecture in the Louis Seize style, delimiting the central scene at the top of the vault with an ancient mythological motif. The central motif of the painting is Faeton’s fall, where Faeton is surrounded by figures from Roman mythology (from left to right: Diana, Mars, Pluto, Juno, Zeus, Hercules, Apollo, Faeton, Iris, Mercury, Chronos, Minerva, Venus, Vulcan, Amor). In the upper left corner of the painting at the foot of the vault is a signature of the painter: Joseph. Lerch. pinx: Ao 1782. The whole scene is set in the sky with clouds, smoke, blue skies and the sun in the middle, forming the background for Faeton with a double sled. The paintings represent a valuable work of art of great regional importance, reaching the level of some late-Baroque paintings of national importance.
