Krasiński Manor House in Złoty Potok

In the summer of 1857 the poet Zygmunt Krasiński lived in this single-storey Neoclassical manor house in Złoty Potok – and he gave names to many of the surrounding rocks, springs and ponds, including the Irydion pond below the palace. Today the house holds the Zygmunt Krasiński Regional Museum, and its most precious exhibit is an Érard piano that Frédéric Chopin himself is said to have helped choose. It is a small literary museum, best combined with a walk through the park and the Wiercica valley.

History: from the Leskis to the Krasińskis

The manor was most likely built in 1829 on the initiative of Stanisław Leski (some sources give 1827). Ten years later it belonged to the Skarżyński family and soon afterwards to the Pintowskis. In 1851 the estate was bought by General Wincenty Krasiński, the poet's father, who built a Neoclassical palace next to it and set the manor aside for his son.

Zygmunt Krasiński, one of Poland's three great Romantic poets, first saw the Jura uplands in 1849, when the family visited the Jasna Góra monastery. He passed through Złoty Potok in 1852, and in the summer of 1857 he settled here with his wife Eliza (née Branicka) and their children. The family went on long walks, and the poet named rock outcrops and springs. The idyll ended with the death of his youngest daughter, four-year-old Elżbieta; she was buried in the Neo-Gothic Krasiński chapel of the village church, and the poet left for Paris.

From teachers' flats to a museum

After a fire the interior was rebuilt in 1952. After the war the house was home to, among others, teachers of the agricultural college that occupied the neighbouring palace. From 1985 to 2007 it housed the Krasiński Biographical Museum, a branch of the Częstochowa Museum. With the building in poor condition, it was handed to the Janów municipality, which restored it and opened the present regional museum in 2008.

What to see

• The Érard piano intended for Delfina Potocka – Chopin is said to have advised the poet on the choice.
• First editions of some of Krasiński's works and family portraits.
• The building itself: a single-storey manor on a rectangular plan, with a nine-bay front, a porch on two Tuscan columns and a shingle roof.

Around it lies an English-style park of almost 40 hectares, with the Wiercica river running through it. Next to the manor stand the Raczyński palace (not open to visitors) and the Irydion pond.

Did you know?

After Wincenty's death the estate passed to the poet's daughter Maria, wife of Edward Aleksander Raczyński. In 1881 Count Edward Raczyński founded one of Europe's first trout farms at the karst springs of the Wiercica, known as the Springs of Zygmunt and Elżbieta. The springs, the breeding ponds and the old Kołaczew water mill make a good walk after the museum.

Tripto tip

• Address: ul. Kościuszki 11, 42-253 Złoty Potok (Janów municipality, Częstochowa county); tel. +48 34 329 11 62, muzeum@janow.pl.
• Opening hours according to the regional portal śląskie.travel: 1 March–31 October Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00; 1 November–end of February Mon–Fri 8:00–16:00, Sat–Sun 11:00–15:00. The museum's own website is being rebuilt, so call ahead to check ticket prices.
• Allow 30–60 minutes for the museum; with the park and the Wiercica springs, plan half a day.