Śmiełów Palace

Śmiełów Palace (roughly "SHMYEH-woof") is an elegant late-18th-century country house in Greater Poland that now holds the Adam Mickiewicz Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Poznań. Mickiewicz is to Poland roughly what Byron or Pushkin are to their countries, and this is the only museum in Poland devoted solely to him. If you enjoy Romantic-era history, Palladian architecture and quiet landscape parks, it is well worth a detour on a trip through western Poland.

Where it is and how to get there

The palace stands in the village of Śmiełów, between the small towns of Jarocin and Żerków, about 70 km (45 miles) southeast of Poznań – a little over an hour by car. Poznań has the nearest international airport; from Wrocław the drive takes around two hours. The closest major railway station is Jarocin, roughly 18 km away, so in practice a car (or a taxi from Jarocin) is the easiest option. The village is small and the palace sits right by the road.

A Palladian house with a Romantic story

The house was finished in 1797 for Andrzej Gorzeński and designed by Stanisław Zawadzki, one of the leading architects of Polish Neoclassicism. He took Palladio's Villa Badoer as his model: a central block with a portico, linked by curved galleries to two side wings in a horseshoe about 43 m (140 ft) wide.

In mid-August 1831, during the November Uprising against Russia, Adam Mickiewicz stayed here under an assumed name. Poland had been partitioned, and Śmiełów lay in the Prussian-ruled part. The museum links the visit to his feelings for Konstancja Łubieńska, the hostess's sister, and suggests that his months in the region fed into his epic poem "Pan Tadeusz". Local legend says he planted an oak in the park.

In the 1880s the estate passed to the Chełkowski family, who cultivated the poet's memory and put up a monument to him in the park in 1931. German forces seized the estate in 1939, and after World War II the interiors were stripped and the building used as a school and staff housing. The National Museum in Poznań took over in 1970 and opened the museum in 1975.

What to see

• Rooms furnished in the style of around 1830, including a room dedicated to Mickiewicz.
• Painted decoration by the Smuglewicz brothers: an oval salon with scenes from Homer's Iliad and a blue salon in a Pompeian manner.
• Memorabilia of Mickiewicz and fellow Romantic poets Słowacki and Norwid.
• A barrel-vaulted basement room once used by a Masonic lodge.
• A landscape park of nearly 14 hectares (35 acres) with the poet's monument, running down toward the Warta River woods.

Allow about an hour inside and up to two hours if you walk the park. Labels are mainly in Polish, so a translation app helps; guided tours can be booked through the education department.

Tickets and opening hours (as of October 2026)

• Tuesday–Friday 9 am–4 pm, Saturday–Sunday 10 am–4 pm, closed Mondays; the ticket desk closes 30 minutes earlier.
• Regular ticket 15 PLN, reduced 10 PLN, ages 8–26 1 PLN; free admission on Tuesdays.
• Closed on public holidays such as November 1 and December 24–26 and 31.
• Phone: +48 62 740 31 64.

Accessibility

The two-story palace has no elevator, there are steps at the entrance and no accessible restroom, so the interiors are not wheelchair accessible. Assistance dogs are welcome. The park is the better option for visitors with limited mobility.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes, if you are touring Greater Poland by car or already visiting Poznań and want something quieter than a big-city museum. Combine it with the viewpoint over the "Żerków Switzerland" hills on the road to Żerków, the neo-Gothic Radoliński Palace in Jarocin, or Gołuchów Castle, another branch of the Poznań museum.