The funds are being given to the Warsaw-based Polish-German foundation that manages the site.
Its head, Wojciech Wrzecionkowski, said the project would finally allow workers to overhaul the entire roof of the former East Prussian residence.
“We need to replace the roof over the entire palace,” Wrzecionkowski told Polish state news agency PAP.
He added that parts of the façade have already been renovated on two wings of the building.
Sztynort Palace stands on a peninsula between several Masurian lakes.
For over five centuries it was the main family seat of the Lehndorffs, one of the most prominent noble families in East Prussia.
Many members of the family served in the army or as diplomats for both Prussian-German and Polish rulers.
The last heir, Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, took part in the failed July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler at the nearby Wolf’s Lair headquarters in what is now Gierłoż, in northeastern Poland.
A memorial stone in Sztynort in honour of Heinrich Graf Lehndorff-Steinort, an active participant in the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Photo: SPBer, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
He was arrested shortly afterwards and later executed by the Nazis.
During World War II, in 1941, the German foreign ministry took over the palace, and foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop stayed there during visits to Hitler’s headquarters
The building survived the fighting in 1945. After the war it housed Soviet military units until 1947, and its farm buildings served as a staging station for systematic theft of livestock and works of art by the Soviets.
In communist-era Poland, offices of the local PGR state farm, operated from the palace.
After the fall of communism in 1989, the building was left without proper upkeep and fell into serious disrepair during the 1990s.
Renovation work has been under way in stages since 2009, including emergency measures to secure the structure and conservation of parts of the interior.
During these works, conservators uncovered allegorical paintings on some of the wooden ceiling beams.
The foundation plans to turn the restored Sztynort Palace into a museum of East Prussian nobility.
Members of the Lehndorff family have declared that they intend to transfer original furnishings from the former palace back to Sztynort, once known by its German name of Steinort, so they can be displayed there.
Part of the complex is expected to be adapted for hotel use, in line with a wider trend of restoring historic residences as heritage-focused hospitality sites.
Among the children of Heinrich von Lehndorff, the best known is Vera, Germany's first supermodel.
Born in 1939 and known as Veruschka, she came to international prominence playing herself in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up, and later worked as an actress and painter, the PAP news agency reported.
German model and actress Veruschka, pictured at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. Photo: Siebbi, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP