Landmarks

Temple of the Sibyl in Puławy

Above the Vistula backwater, in the English park surrounding the Czartoryski palace in Puławy, stands a rotunda modelled on the ancient Temple of Vesta in Tivoli near Rome. The Temple of the Sibyl was built between 1798 and 1801 to a design by Piotr Aigner at the initiative of Izabela Czartoryska. The Corinthian sandstone columns and the dome with its lantern impress before you even step inside — and the history of the place goes far beyond architecture.

The first museum in Poland

It was here, in 1801, that Izabela Czartoryska arranged the first Polish museum, meant to strengthen the spirit in a country deprived of independence. In two round rooms — a representative upper hall and a lower one covered by a dome resting on nine arcades — she gathered mementoes of the Sieniawski, Lubomirski and Czartoryski families and relics of great Poles, among them Prince Józef Poniatowski. Above the entrance the inscription Past to the Future was placed, and the frieze with griffins and candelabra was carved by the sculptor Fryderyk Bauman. The stone lions by the stairs are a gift from Tsar Alexander I from his stay in Puławy in 1805.

The wanderings of the collection

After the outbreak of the November Uprising, in 1830, the collections were moved to Paris and later reached Kraków, becoming the seed of the Princes Czartoryski Museum. They returned to Puławy in 1938, when the museum was reactivated in the temple. In 2009 the rotunda was entered in the register of monuments under number A/150.

In practice

The temple stands in the palace park on Czartoryskich Street, and a visit involves a walk along the garden avenues — it is worth reserving at least an hour for it. The best views open from the side of the Vistula backwater, especially in the morning, when the park is quiet and empty.