Lancut is known primarily from the large Lubomirski and Potocki Castle. On our road trip, we wanted to explore the best places on the eastern side of the country, so we put this Castle on our to do list.
The castle is so big that it is impossible to miss the huge fenced area. You can see that the park is a big part of the city area. What was strange was that there was almost no parking around the park and no parking lot for tourists. We needed to leave our car at a parking spot at one of the streets in the city center, in a restricted paid parking zone.
We came to ticket office, there we noticed that entry was only in organized groups with a guide. Tickets can be purchased on a single object or in package Castle Orangery + Carriage Room. We decided on a package because we wanted to see everything worth seeing. We skipped only Orchid building. We even had a small discount as a large family. Nice.
We needed to wait for a while for a guide in front of the ticket office buildings. The guide was quite elderly and her way of speaking disappointed us so much. You could see the lack of substantial preparation — no plan, just improvisation consisting of the fact that when she noticed something in the room, she would talk about that particular thing. For us it was complete shock, how it is possible to be so unprepared. We had seen Kozlowka Palace a few days earlier so it was totally different experience. There we had learned everything about each room and exhibit; here it was quite the opposite.
That boring, uninteresting way our guide conducted the tour was what we didn’t like. Another issue was the prohibitions. There was a ban on photographing and filming, with a “full-time security guard” in every room,” whose job was to monitor the premises and rudely reprimand tourists. And it’s not about shooting with a flash that as a prohibition understood, because that would protect the artworks from harmful flashes. But here, photography was not allowed at all. Last time we saw such “live guards” in Torun, in Museum of Copernicus house. Same style.
To protect the antique floors, we had to wear slippers to visit the castle. For children, it could even be fun, because in slippers your legs slide as if on ice. But – why were there no sizes for them? When we asked that question we’ve got answer that children do not have to wear slippers. It ended up with the kids wearing slippers a few sizes too big. Though it did let them have some fun.
We walked through the chateau with great displeasure. We thought we were unlucky with our assigned guide. But passing the group in front of us, we saw that all the guides were seniors and were talking about the castle without much enthusiasm. Shame.
We bought a family ticket package, which in addition to admission to the castle also included a tour of the Orangery and the carriage house.
The Orangery is a building where exotic plants are cultivated. During the tour we saw also aquariums with turtles. The walk through the Orangery took maybe 5 minutes total. What a joke.
Next we went to the carriage house that was located outside the park. During the walk, we saw an unusual patrol of ‘park guards’. What were they guarding? Maybe there is so dangerous? Hmm, strange.
Finally we reached the buildings with carriage house and stables. There, again we saw a sign saying ‘no photos’. Inside, there were a lot of nicely displayed carriages and sleighs. And again, in every corner of the building we saw a worker enforcing the “no photography” rule. It is unpleasant to watch exhibitions when someone is constantly watching your hands. They act as if every visitor were an enemy of the museum or a thief.
With great disgust, we literally ran away from this place. We left Lancut with very negative memories. Total lack of openness toward tourists. We concluded that the target audience expected here is retirees and the elderly. For children, there was nothing to encourage engagement during the tour. We remember even our visit in Oslo, a museum of the Nobel Peace Prize – for children there was a special game of collecting cards with images of Nobel Prize winners. Here in Lancut there is also huge potential but totally wasted.
In summary tour of the castle and surrounding buildings definitely not suitable in our opinion to visit with children. This place, with its current approach to visitors, has no chance of being recommended.