Palaces

Branicki Palace, Białystok

The Branicki Palace in Białystok — the "Versailles of Podlasie" — is the best-preserved magnate residence of the Saxon era and one of the finest Baroque achievements in this part of Europe. Its origins go back to the 16th century, but its present form is the work of successive architects serving Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki: Tylman van Gameren turned the earlier castle into a Baroque residence, Jan Zygmunt Deybel added a storey, a tympanum with the Gryf coat of arms and wings forming a cour d'honneur, and Jakub Fontana (1750–1771) shaped the silhouette and the Rococo interiors, including the famous staircase with sculptures by Jan Chryzostom Redler.

The hetman's court hosted Augustus II and Augustus III, Stanisław August Poniatowski, Emperor Joseph II and the future king of France Louis XVIII, and in 1754 the first military school on Polish lands was founded here. After turbulent times — a tsarist "Institute of Well-Born Maidens" and the palace being 70 percent destroyed in 1944 — the residence was rebuilt in 1946–1960, and since 1950 its owner has been the Medical University. Behind the palace stretches a French Baroque garden reconstructed around 2012; with its English section the park covers 9.7 hectares.

Practical tips: the interiors can only be visited with a guide from the Medical University Museum, after a phone reservation. Route I (90 minutes; 35 zł, reduced 25 zł) covers the representative apartments, cellars and medical exhibitions; Route II (60 minutes; 30 zł, reduced 20 zł) skips the palace interiors. The museum office works Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00 and weekends 9:00–17:00; you can stroll the garden without a reservation.