Wilanow Palace

Wilanow was built from 1677 as a country house for King Jan III Sobieski and enlarged by later owners into something between a villa and a palace, low and wide with painted facades and sculpted attics. It came through the twentieth century in better shape than most Warsaw buildings and reopened as a museum in 1962 with much of its collection; Stanislaw Kostka Potocki had first opened part of it to the public as a museum in 1805. The interiors run from Sobieski's own apartments through later state rooms hung with portraits, including a long gallery of Polish sitters. Outside, a formal baroque garden steps down towards the lake on two levels, with an English landscape park spreading around it and an orangery along one side.

History

The palace was built in 1677-1696 for King John III Sobieski to designs by Augustyn Wincenty Locci, as a baroque suburban residence between entrance court and garden. After Sobieski's death it passed to the Sieniawski, Czartoryski, Lubomirski, Potocki and Branicki families; Elżbieta Sieniawska bought and enlarged it in 1720, and in 1805 Stanisław Kostka Potocki opened part of it as one of the first public museums in Poland (Wikipedia, Wilanów Palace).

The main sights

• The state apartments - painted ceilings, stucco and the king's own rooms on the ground floor.
• The portrait gallery - rows of Polish sitters, several in coffin-portrait form.
• The two-level garden - the baroque parterre dropping to the lake behind the palace.
• The poster museum - Polish graphic design in the former riding school beside the gate.

When to go

May to September for the gardens, which are the better half of the visit. Interiors are on timed entry and summer weekends sell out by midday, so book. In late autumn and winter the garden carries an illuminated light display in the evenings, which is popular and ticketed separately. Interiors close one day a week.

What to expect

It is a slow bus ride from the centre with no metro, and the trip back at rush hour drags. Interiors are seen in a fixed one-way flow and photography is restricted. Ticketing is split between palace, gardens, poster museum and light display, and the total is high for what is a fairly small house. Summer queues form outside in the sun.

Nearby

The Warsaw riverside and the Lazienki park with its palace on an island lie back towards the centre.

Key facts