Kozlowka Palace

Kozlowka was built in the 1730s and remodelled around 1900 for the Zamoyski family, and like Pszczyna it is one of the few Polish houses whose furnishing survived - the rooms are shown with their original furniture, stoves, textiles and a very dense hanging of paintings, mostly copies of European masters bought as a set, in the manner of the period. The chapel is modelled on the one at Versailles. The house passed to the state in 1944 and the family's protection of the collection through the war is part of the story told inside. What makes Kozlowka unusual is the second museum: in the former coach house is the Gallery of Socialist Realist Art, the largest permanent collection of its kind in Poland, holding paintings and sculpture from the years around 1950 - portraits of leaders, tractor scenes, monumental heads - assembled from stores after 1989 and displayed without commentary of the mocking kind, which makes it more unsettling.

What you actually see

• Interiors as furnished - original stoves, textiles and a dense picture hanging.
• A Versailles-modelled chapel - built with the 1900 remodelling.
• The socialist realist gallery - the largest permanent collection of it in Poland.
• A formal park - laid out around the house with an avenue approach.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

Palace rooms are seen on a timed guided route that sells out in summer. Closed Mondays. The socialist realist gallery is a separate ticket. The village has almost no services.

Nearby

Lubartow is nine kilometres away; Lublin is south.