Museum of Manor House Interiors in Ożarów

In Ożarów near Wieluń stands a historic wooden gentry manor house: built of larch, with four corner pavilions and a shingled Polish mansard roof. The construction date – 1757 – is carved on a ceiling beam together with the letters L.R. Since 1981 it has housed the Museum of Manor House Interiors, a branch of the Wieluń Land Museum, which shows how the local gentry lived.

History: a castellan's manor

Around 1740 Ożarów was bought by Władysław Bartochowski of the Rola coat of arms, later castellan of Wieluń, and he is credited with building the manor – the previous one was in a disastrous state. The initials on the beam are read as Ladislaus and Rola. The Bartochowskis held the estate until 1832; it then passed to the Bąkowski family, and from 1882 to 1945 it belonged to the German Meske family. After the war it was taken over by the State Forests and thoroughly restored in 1970–1980. The village itself is medieval: it is first mentioned in a document of 1381, and its name comes from "ożary" – patches of forest burned to make way for settlement.

What to see

• The building – log construction of larch beams on a stone-and-brick foundation, four corner pavilions and a shingled Polish roof.
• The interiors: drawing room, boudoir with alcove, hunting room, study, dining room and a girl's room.
• Objects from manors of the Wieluń area – baroque wardrobes, chests and trunks from the 18th and 19th centuries, kontusz sashes, ceramics, and stoves from the manor in Parcice.
• Portraits of the Wieluń gentry from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
• The manor park, with trees protected as natural monuments.

The windmill in Kocilew

The museum also owns a post windmill in the hamlet of Kocilew. It was run by the Kowalski milling family; the authorities banned grinding in 1960, and Henryk Kowalski was the last miller. In 1996, when the mill was already a ruin, the museum and its Friends' Society began rescuing it – the windmill was dismantled and reconstructed.

Tripto tips

The manor is open Tuesday–Friday 9:00–15:30, Saturday 9:30–16:30 and Sunday 10:30–17:30; Monday is a closed day. A standard ticket costs PLN 15, reduced PLN 8, family PLN 40, and admission to the exhibitions is free on Sundays. The windmill (ticket PLN 7, reduced PLN 5) is not open at weekends. Allow about an hour for the manor and park. Concerts are held in the manor regularly, so check the museum's calendar.