Manor House in Koszuty

Koszuty Manor (Dwór w Koszutach; say "ko-SHOO-tih"), near Środa Wielkopolska in western Poland, is one of the finest surviving timber manor houses of the Polish gentry. Built of larch around 1760, with corner pavilions and a broken roof, it looks like a page from Poland's national epic, Pan Tadeusz. Today it houses the Środa Regional Museum, which recreates the home of a landed family from about a century ago. It is a small, quiet museum that pairs well with Kórnik Castle or a narrow-gauge train ride.

A national Historic Monument

The manor was most likely built for Józef Zabłocki. It is a rare timber-frame structure of larch filled with clay and set on an oak sill; only the chimneys and the curved bay of the salon are masonry. Four corner pavilions, called alkierz in Polish, frame the rectangular plan. The present roofline and the small front pavilions date from a 1902 remodeling, and wooden shingles returned to the roof in 1983.

In 2018 the manor and park were declared a Historic Monument of Poland (Pomnik Historii), the country's top heritage designation. The citation calls it a nationally representative example of the corner-pavilion manor, the most typical Polish country residence of the early modern period.

What to see inside

You enter through a porch with an openwork wooden balustrade. The permanent exhibition, "A Small Landed Estate in Greater Poland," recreates rooms from around 1900 with furniture, paintings and everyday objects. The heart of the house is an oval salon on the central axis, with rooms opening off it in a symmetrical enfilade. Upstairs are old maps and plans of Środa, including a town plan more than 200 years old. A mid-19th-century outbuilding and a landscaped park complete the estate.

Visiting tips

Allow about an hour inside, more if you stroll the park. Labels are mainly in Polish, so consider booking a guide (PLN 50 per group) and asking in advance about an English-speaking guide. The museum runs workshops and concerts; check its news page.

Accessibility: one step at the entrance, with a portable ramp on request (ring the bell by the veranda); an accessible restroom; a disabled parking space near the entrance.

Hours and tickets

As of October 2026:

• Tuesday–Friday: 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
• Saturday–Sunday: 11 a.m.–3 p.m. (closed on weekends from November through March)
• Monday: closed
• Tickets: PLN 20 standard, PLN 15 reduced; free on Wednesdays

Contact: +48 733 450 733, muzeum@koszuty.pl.

How to get there

Koszuty lies between Kórnik and Środa Wielkopolska, a few kilometers west of Środa and about 35 km (22 miles) from central Poznań, the nearest city with an international airport. A car is easiest; the navigation address is Koszuty 27. Cyclists can combine the visit with the Środa narrow-gauge railway: the Słupia Wielka stop is about 2 km (1.2 miles) away.

Nearby

• Środa County Railway, a seasonal narrow-gauge heritage line from Środa to Zaniemyśl.
• Kórnik, with its neo-Gothic castle and arboretum, a short drive west.