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Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
The origins of the garden at the Wilanów Palace date back to the end of the 17th century. The composition of the Wilanów estate was shaped under the influence of models drawn from Italy. The shape of the palace referred to that of a summer villa, while the garden, whose elements were planned along the main compositional axis, which exists to this day, was in its form a continuation of the Italian garden style.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Content
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
General information
Some highlights about King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów (Poland)
Type of historic garden
Private residences
Size
90 ha.
Location
Stanisława Kostki Potockiego 10/16,
02-958 Wilanów District, Warsaw, Poland
Coordinates: 52.16557, 21.09285
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Timetables
Check wilanow-palac.pl
Tickets
Check wilanow-palac.pl
Contact information
Webs: wilanow-palac.pl
Email: muzeum@muzeum-wilanow.pl
Phone: +48 22 5442 700
Access
The Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów is located in the Wilanów district, approx. 10 km from Warsaw city centre, at the end of the historical Royal Route leading from the Royal Castle in Old Town through the Royal Łazienki Museum to the Wilanów residence.
Generally accessible paid car park for passenger vehicles and coach buses is located approx. 300 m from the palace, on Przyczółkowa Street.
Accessible using public transit bus lines 116, 139, 163, 164, 180, 317, 379, 519, 700, 710, 724, 725, E-2.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Natural environment
The limits of the garden and park in Wilanów include a Baroque garden, landscape parks and the Morysin nature reserve. The entirety of the Baroque part of the gardens and the landscape parks stretches out near the palace and at the same time is located in the buffer zone of the reserve.
Surface waters are also an integral part of the garden and park complex in Wilanów:
- Służewiecki Stream, South Pond (artificial water reservoir, a relic of the royal manor farm),
- Wilanowskie Lake (part of the old riverbed of the Vistula with a shoreline modified in the 19th century),
- North Bay (artificial water reservoir from the mid-19th century),
- Sobieski Canal (an agricultural canal dug in the late 17th century, adapted to the composition of the 19th-century park complex).
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Historical background
On the eastern side, the summer royal residence in Wilanów is adjacent to the area of the historic royal zoo, while from the south, west and north, it is surrounded by the dynamically growing modern Wilanów district of Warsaw.
Through the Museum’s efforts, the complexes of historical residential and farm buildings located in the closest vicinity of the residence are being successively included within its borders.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Description
The origins of the garden at the Wilanów Palace date back to the end of the 17th century. The composition of the Wilanów estate was shaped under the influence of models drawn from Italy. The shape of the palace referred to that of a summer villa, while the garden, whose elements were planned along the main compositional axis, which exists to this day, was in its form a continuation of the Italian garden style.
Subsequent modifications completed the Baroque character of the residence and made the implementation of the principle of the palace situation between a courtyard and a garden clear. At the end of the 18th and in the middle of the 19th centuries, new areas (the so-called northern park) were added to the garden composition, designed as English-style landscape parks and English riverside parks. The northern park stretches over more than 44 hectares. Due to its unique character, a nature reserve was established within it in 1996. Presently, the royal gardens in Wilanów cover an area of more than 90 hectares.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Chronology
- 1677
Jan III Sobieski buys the Wilanów estate – the beginning of shaping the Wilanów palace and park complex. - 1678-1720
The Wilanów property remains in the hands of the Sobieski family – shaping the main compositional elements. - 1771-1779
Completion of the palace extension, extension of the Baroque garden, the patte d’oie, construction of the Orangery, creation of an English-Chinese landscape part on the farmland from the Sobieski times. - 1799-1892
Wilanów becomes the property of the Potocki family: expansion of the garden from the north, where a park in the style of an English riverside park is established; elimination of the double courtyard; creation of, among others, the Chinese Arbour, the Roman Bridge, the stone pergola on the extension of the north wing of the palace, a Gothic brick gate between the Orangery and the Fig House, a neo-Renaissance garden by the palace’s north wing, Pump Station building.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Museum
The Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów provides care for the historical royal residence, established in the 3rd quarter of the 17th century, which includes the palace, park, gardens and the nature reserve. in 1805, the palace interiors, with a collection of works of art, as well as the park, were opened to the public as the first Polish art museum. Subsequent owners of the residence from the aristocratic Sieniawski, Lubomirski, Potocki and Branicki families made the Wilanów collections available continuously until World War II, after which, under the agricultural reform, the Wilanów estate became property of the state treasury.
Revitalisation works
Starting in 1954, extensive revitalisation works were carried out in the palace and the park. The adopted benchmark was a reference to the era of the first owner of Wilanów, King Jan III Sobieski, wherever it was possible. The Palace was a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw and in 1995, became an independent institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. At the beginning of the 21st century, extensive revitalisation works were carried out, covering both the façade and the interior of the palace, as well as the park and the palace forecourt. Most of the works were financed by the European Union and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Network of European Royal Residences
Since 2006, the Museum has been a member of the Network of European Royal Residences. The Museum regularly organises temporary exhibitions, conferences and scientific seminars, conducts scientific research, publishes academic and popular science books, organises educational activities devoted to both cultural and natural values of the Wilanów royal residence. The Museum website offers several thousand articles presenting the history and culture of the Poland of old. The museum is also introducing new technologies to make it easier to visit the museum.
Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów
Observations
Historic palace garden at the summer residence of King Jan III