What does the “Polish Athens” have to offer? You can get there from Warsaw in just over an hour
In Poland, there is no shortage of local equivalents of famous foreign cities. Until the end of September, we can visit the most important sites in the “Polish Athens”.
There are quite a few Polish equivalents of foreign attractions. Tourists are certainly quite familiar with the term “little Rome”, which, not without reason, describes Sandomierz. In the Lublin province, we will find another place that evokes associations with an ancient city. I am talking about Puławy.
The term stuck to Puławy, among other things, due to the cultural flourishing in the 18th and 19th centuries and its architecture. There is, among other things, a rotunda-shaped building here, which immediately evokes associations with ancient architecture. It was modeled on the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli near Rome.
Temple of the Sybil in Puławy. This is where Polish museology began
This is the temple of Sibyl, which is part of the palace and park complex at the Czartoryski Palace in Puławy. In 1801, the first Polish museum was established here. Duchess Izabela Czartoryska collected family mementos there from magnate families (Sieniawski, Lubomirski and Czartoryski) and from important Poles: kings, leaders and artists. When visiting, you need to be prepared for one thing – many of these important mementos will not be found here due to the turbulent fate of Polish history. They became the seed of the Czartoryski Princes Museum in Krakow.
You can also visit other buildings in the park and palace complex – the Gothic House and the Alexandrian House. All three will be available to visitors until the end of September (except for the weekend of September 21-22). They are closed in the autumn season (from October 1).
An atmospheric walk in Czartoryski Park
The Czartoryski Museum website has a map that will help you plan your visit to this vast area. In the fall, it is worth taking a walk through Czartoryski Park, which was designed in the spirit of an English-style landscape park. It is free to enter. Residents and tourists like to come here, among other things, to see the strolling peacocks.
Puławy is a good option for a weekend trip from Warsaw. It takes 1.5 hours to get there by car, and a little over an hour by train.
