Dzieduszycki Palace in Zarzecze

The first guest at Zarzecze Palace was Princess Izabela Czartoryska herself – no surprise, since Magdalena Morska née Dzieduszycka modelled her residence on Czartoryska's estate at Puławy. The same architect, Christian Piotr Aigner, who designed the Temple of the Sibyl in Puławy, gave the Neoclassical palace above the Mleczka river a rotunda with a Doric colonnade. Today the palace houses the Dzieduszycki Museum with original furniture, surrounded by a romantic park of ancient oaks.

History: the Dzieduszyckis' home

The palace was built for Magdalena and Ignacy Morski in the early 19th century – sources differ between 1807–1810 and 1807–1812. Aigner had earlier remodelled the Viceroy's Palace in Warsaw, today's Presidential Palace. The lady of the house designed the interiors herself: Empire furniture, parquet floors and stucco decoration were made to her drawings, and much of the furnishing survives. On a neighbouring hill she planned a church inspired by La Madeleine in Paris; it was completed only by her nephew, Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki.

In early 1819 the countess gave a ball here, described – together with the first-floor apartment – by the diarist Franciszek Ksawery Prek. After her death in 1847 the estate passed to her brother, Józef Kalasanty Dzieduszycki. For decades Zarzecze was the family's summer residence, becoming their permanent home in the 1920s. The palace sheltered insurgents after the November Uprising of 1830–31 against Russian rule, and in the Second World War soldiers of the Home Army and refugees. In 1942 Father Stefan Wyszyński, later Primate of Poland, hid here under the alias “Sister Cecylia”.

In autumn 1944 the new communist authorities nationalised the estate and set up an agricultural school in the buildings. The furniture, paintings and archives were taken to the museum in Jarosław. Thanks to cooperation between the family and local authorities, a museum opened in the palace on 23 April 2008 as a branch of the Orsetti House Museum in Jarosław.

What to see

• The rotunda at the corner of the palace, modelled on the Temple of the Sibyl in Puławy: a rusticated lower storey and an upper storey ringed by a Doric colonnade running round about two thirds of it.
• The Upper Round Salon, counted among the finest Neoclassical interiors in Poland.
• Recreated interiors with Empire furniture and mementoes of the Dzieduszycki family and their relatives, the Czartoryski, Sapieha and Szeptycki families.
• The orangery linking the palace with the annex and ending in a wooden porch.
• The park of about 9 hectares, designed by Magdalena Morska and laid out until 1840: old oaks, Amur cork trees, a 200-year-old plane tree in front of the palace and a tulip tree by the orangery.

Tripto tip

The museum (ul. Księdza Gajeckiego 5, Zarzecze) is visited at fixed entry times, with a guide in winter. November to April: Tuesday–Saturday 10:00–16:00, entries at 10:00, 11:30, 13:00 and 14:30. May to October: Tuesday–Saturday 11:00–17:00 (entries 11:00, 12:30, 14:00, 15:30), Sunday 12:00–17:00 (12:00, 13:30, 15:00). Closed on Mondays, and in winter also on Sundays. Prices in October 2026: standard PLN 20, reduced PLN 10, family PLN 50; entry to the rotunda (wearing shoe covers) costs an extra PLN 5. On Thursdays admission to the permanent exhibitions is free for individual visitors. Allow 1.5–2 hours for the palace and a walk in the park. Zarzecze is a separate village and municipality in Przeworsk County, not part of the town of Przeworsk – set your satnav to the museum address.