Domański Villa (Prochownia) in Nawojowa Góra

On the spot where gunpowder was stored for the city of Kraków around 1800 – until an explosion destroyed the magazine – stands one of the most intriguing villas in the Jura uplands west of Kraków. The Domański Villa in Nawojowa Góra, formerly the Prochownia ("powder house") manor, hides an Egyptian Bedroom made in Lviv and a dining room in the Zakopane style designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz.

History: from powder magazine to Italian-style villa

After the explosion destroyed the powder magazine, the building was rebuilt in the early 19th century. From 1826 a gunpowder maker named Rotermund paid rent here, and in 1916 the manor was bought by Napoleon Cybulski. In 1921 it passed to the Domański family, who exchanged it for a manor in Zarzyce Wielkie. In 1924 the single-storey house burned down. Its owner, mining engineer Karol Gustaw Domański, who was working on the construction of an industrial gas plant in Trzebinia, had just returned from travels in Italy and Egypt. He commissioned the architect Leon Wilmann to rebuild the house after the model of Renaissance villas, and the new residence was completed in 1925.

After the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans brought people expelled from Warsaw here, and in the 1950s the communist authorities moved in tenants who took over almost all the rooms. The Domański family lived in a single room, using the bathroom as their kitchen.

What to see

• The facade with its double flight of steps leading to a terrace in front of a portico on four arches – the so-called "Spanish steps".
• The irregular silhouette with corner bay turrets and a tower on the west side.
• The Egyptian Bedroom, made in Lviv from drawings Domański brought back from Egypt – complete with stool legs shaped like elephant trunks.
• A bathroom and dining room in the Zakopane style designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz, and a wooden staircase lit by a stained-glass window.
• The brick stable and coach house of 1925 with an attic parapet, the gardener's house, and a landscape park above the Krzeszówka stream with a lime avenue, an old oak and a square swimming pool.

Interesting facts

The villa now has two owners. One of the last members of the family, Danuta Lubelska née Domańska, donated her share to the Krzeszowice local heritage society, which owns the ground floor on the Spanish-steps side. The interiors have kept their 1920s appearance and furnishings.

Tripto tip

This is not a museum with daily opening hours. Receptions, conferences, exhibitions and small concerts take place in the villa and coach house, and there is a café in the former greenhouse. The interiors are easiest to see during events or by prior arrangement. The villa stands on Prochownia street, right next to national road 79. Combine your visit with Tenczynek, Krzeszowice and the Krzeszówka valley; allow about an hour for the villa and park.