Palaces

Konopków Palace in Wieliczka

The late Baroque palace at Mieczysław Skulimowski square is one of the most interesting monuments of Wieliczka — today the seat of the Malopolska-Swietokrzyski branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, its walls holding traces of more than two centuries of turbulent history. The residence was built in the 1780s for the Konopka brothers.

A palace of salt officials

The Konopkas sold the palace to the Austrian authorities, who turned it into housing for the families of salt administration officials who ran the great salt mine. One of its residents was Feliks Piestrak, head of the Mining School in Wieliczka in 1909–1912 and 1918–1924. In the mid-20th century the Municipal Public Library operated here, but the building was falling into ruin; its dark cellars grew legends and attracted secret expeditions of schoolchildren from a nearby school.

A second life

After the political transformation the palace underwent a long thorough renovation, and the restored building passed to the Institute of National Remembrance. On 13 August 2010 a plaque dedicated to the Institute's president Janusz Kurtyka, who died in the Smolensk catastrophe, was unveiled on the facade; it was funded by the NZS 1980 Association.

In practice

The palace stands in the centre of Wieliczka, right by the road from Krakow: the brine graduation tower is 300 metres away and the historic salt mine, a UNESCO site, 700 metres. Krakow's market square and Wawel castle lie less than 12 kilometres away, so a visit here combines easily with sightseeing the town of salt.