Works
Todays, Jan de Witte is primarily known as a designer of numerous architectural works in the contemporary Western Ukraine, which in the 18th century constituted a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Possibly de Witte's first work was the design for the upper church of Barefooted Carmelites monastery in Berdychiv, beginning in 1737 (there exists preserved self-drawn sketches of the church's facade from 1743).
His main works are to be found in Lviv. In 1740s he probably authored the Rococo redesigning of a town house (no. 2) at the city's old town market square. In 1744 the Dominican brothers of Lwów made up decision to have their old, Gothic temple temple demolished, due to its very bad constructional condition, and entrusted de Witte with drawing up plans for the new edifice. The construction works soon started and this very costly architectural investment was ready in its basic form by the year 1759. Subsequently the interior works begun and the church was eventually consecrated on 29 June 1764. The Dominican church, resembling to some point and probably also inspired by the works of Fischer von Erlach and Guarini, has a characteristic late Baroque form of a centrally-placed longitudinal oval construction, crowned with an elliptic dome. Until our times it is still a one of crucial landmarks of the city's skyline.
The other de Witte's work placed in Lviv is the palace of Lubomirski family, situated on the Market Square. The rebuilding of previous two merchant town houses into a splendorous Rococo residence, on the request of Stanisław Lubomirski, was commenced in 1763 and lasted until 1767. De Witte also had drawn the designs for another palace of Lubomirski, placed in the Volhynian town of Równe (nowadays Rivne, Ukraine), which was remodeled according to de Witte's project in the years 1765-1770 (the palace was destroyed in 1945).
In his architectural career, De Witte tended to favor above all drawing the designs, as he didn't engage to much in the actual building process which he preferred to leave in the hands of professional building masters and visited the building sites infrequently, restraining himself to offer necessary directions and detailed drawings only.
Stationed at Kamieniec Podolski as an officer of the Corps of Artillery, he also worked on reconstruction and expansion of the old fortress. Among his projects there are the new barracks and the commandants' residence, dubbed de Witte's Garden.
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