We drove east, in the direction of Lublin, but we bypassed it. We planned to spend the whole day at the palace complex in Kozlowka at Kozlowka. There is the famous Zamoyski family estate, which consists of a park, palace complex, chapel, carriage house and courtyard.
First we follow the signs to the parking lot near the main entrance to the complex. Moments later, we are already in the courtyard. The ticket office is located inside in one of the buildings. It is possible to walk in the park for free. We went to ticket office and were shocked. Almost all tickets for today was sold out. Service at the ticket office was terrible; the lady selling tickets was so unfriendly to tourists. There was information that it is possible to book tickets online. However, when we tried to do so before arrival, it wasn’t working. Without much discussion, we purchased tickets for all available attractions. The tour of the palace was available only at the 5 PM. We took that.
First we went to explore the carriage house. Inside, several antique carriages and vintage bicycle travel accessories were on display. On the wall hung a dozen harnesses. This exhibition is not large and it is not especially interesting.
We went to the other side of the courtyard. Along the way we met peacock walking around the park. It was a unique sight to watch a peacock walking freely in the open. Children liked this animal very much, and Justine called it a ‘baboon’ (it is a similar word in Polish). This peacock was clearly interested in us, probably because the children were eating a cockerel lollipop (which we had bought the day before). You had to be careful not to be pecked by the peacock.
On the other side of the courtyard we saw the only Polish Art Gallery of Socialist Realism. We went inside and felt like we’ve moved back to the times of communism. Lots of gadgets of that time. We were able to hear the propaganda and music from the speakers. There was a lot of images of communists, paintings, old coins and banknotes. We don’t remember those times well, because we were kids then. However, for our children, those days are a total abstraction. Behind the museum building there’s some monuments placed, transported from the whole country, including Bierut (transported from Lublin), Lenin (from Poronin) or Marchlewski (from Wloclawek). That’s because of the palace’s function — it served as a repository of the museum of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts. Once these monuments stood in the market squares of major cities, today it is just an exhibit in the museum.
We are going straight forward, to theater building. There was a photographic exhibition called ‘Wildlife Photography’. 70 beautiful photographs. Some of them are so unique that we watched them longer. Unfortunately, the girls didn’t have enough patience to pay as much attention as we wanted, couldn’t even focus on the pictures and started to behave a little crazily. Kris was absorbing all the information about the photos.
In the same building, one floor below photo exhibition was another attraction. It was the exhibition “Jaśnie Panie w kąpieli” – translated to english means “you in the bath”. This name covered an exhibition of bathroom fittings — that is, beautiful bathtubs, showers, and bath accessories. The collection was huge, and this kind of exhibition subject is not very common. Have you ever seen an exhibition of bath accessories?
Moving on, behind the palace. On the other side of the palace is a beautiful garden with miniature ornamental trees, beautifully trimmed hedges and a fountain. We were missing one thing — a fun place for the kids. Soon we saw a signpost with the inscription “playground”. Let’s go. It’s unclear why the playground is located so far from the palace complex in the extreme part of the park. Would children playing bother tourists? After some fun, on the way back we passed the birdhouse where we found some pheasants.
One wing of the palace is a chapel. We went there for a while. We noticed that during the II World War cardinal Stefan Wyszyński spent here 13 months of the occupation. Finally our time to go to the main palace building has come.
We went inside the palace with a guide and group of visitors (25 people). You cannot bring backpacks into the palace, so we had to leave ours in the locker room. We were allowed to take photos (without flash) and to make videos. The tour lasted about an hour. We were going through each room. During the visit we were able to get to know the history of the palace and the Zamoyski family. During the whole tour, you have to walk on the red carpets. We couldn’t step off them. Explain that to children. Are you curious what happens when you step off the carpet? We’ve checked it – a loud alarm is turned on.
The interiors of the palace are decorated in the style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There is authentic room furnishing, original paintings (mostly Zamoyski family members). We were walking the various rooms. Each had original furnishings and overall splendor.
After visiting the palace we headed further east, this time almost to the Chelm city. In the Chelm wilderness area, we had no attractions to visit. Which made us a little anxious. We stopped for the night in the nice nature surroundings – Poleski National Park at the Grabniak Lake. We hadn’t seen such a clean lake for a long time.
Near the lake we found interesting shelter. I wonder what the builder had in mind. Look at this:
