Palaces

Palace in Młoszowa

The palace at Młoszowa is one of the strangest residences of Lesser Poland: a Neo-Gothic palace pretending to be a medieval castle. Its owner, Juliusz Florkiewicz, invented an entire story of a stronghold destroyed by the Swedes, drew up a fictitious inventory and legends, and in 1880 published them in the journal „Wieniec” — under the made-up name of Wawrzyniec Dudziewicz.

The castle that never was

The residence was raised between 1847 and 1870 on the site of an older manor of the Młoszowski family; the builder's father, Kajetan Ozdoba-Florkiewicz, was a senator of the Republic of Kraków. In 1862 the „old castle” was opened to visitors, who recorded their admiration in a memorial book. In 1898 Kajetan's grandson, Count Juliusz Potocki, remodelled the southern part in the Neo-Renaissance style — hence the asymmetric, deliberately uneven body of the building.

Sculptures by Wyspiański

Around it stretches a romantic English park with ponds, ravines and pseudo-historic structures: the St Florian Gate, a Neo-Gothic arsenal, the Belvedere Bastion and the Royal Gate. Statues of saints and figures stand among the hillocks and paths — many of them carved by Franciszek Wyspiański, father of Stanisław Wyspiański.

A university palace

Since 2018 the complex has belonged to the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, which plans a teaching centre with a museum here; the park remains open to residents and tourists, and open-air concerts are held there in summer.