Pastewnik Open-Air Museum in Przeworsk

You can spend the night in the manor house from Krzeczowice and have lunch in the former home and smithy of the Sowiński family. Pastewnik in Przeworsk is called a "living open-air museum" because its wooden houses, saved from demolition, are not empty exhibits but serve as a hotel, an inn and a campsite. The complex lies on the left bank of the Mleczka river, near the Lubomirski palace and park, by the road towards Rzeszów.

History: the "Przeworsk idea"

Pastewnik has operated since 1976. It was the brainchild of local historian and then county architect Stanisław Żuk, who called the project the "Przeworsk idea". Wooden buildings from Przeworsk and nearby villages such as Gać and Krzeczowice were moved to one site, conserved and adapted to new uses. Eventually the museum was meant to resemble a typical Galician market town with a square in the middle, plus a traditional village. As a 2015 academic article describes, carrying out the plan under communism and after 1989 met great difficulties, and the complex remained unfinished.

What to see

• The manor house from Krzeczowice – a single-storey larch-wood manor with a porch and a pediment on four columns, under a shingled Polish mansard roof; sources date it to the 17th or 18th century. It is regarded as the most valuable building of its kind in the region.
• Dom Gacki – a two-storey building of 1924 from Gać, once home to the local council and cultural societies, with four corner bays and two verandas.
• The Sowiński house and smithy from the mid-19th century, moved from ul. Lwowska, now a restaurant.
• The Kotliński cottage of 1780 from ul. Węgierska, with a thatched roof – a rare local example of the post-and-frame ("przysłupowy") building style.
• The Butter-Maker's House – a 19th-century house of the family of mayor Walenty Rybacki, where butter bought from peasants was refined and exported as far as Vienna.
• The weaver's cottage of Leon Trybalski, with a living room, a hallway-workshop and a store for raw materials.

Interesting facts

The smallest building, the Urban family house, measures just 5.12 × 6.44 m with a single 21 m² room – it now houses the reception. Pastewnik has repeatedly won the title of Camping and Caravanning Champion.

Tripto tip

Half an hour is enough to walk around and see the houses from outside, longer if you eat at the inn. Pastewnik pairs well with a walk in the Lubomirski park across the Mleczka. Note that the pastewnik.pl domain no longer belongs to the complex, so before you go, check by phone or on current booking sites whether the hotel, inn and campsite are open to guests.