We drive east of the country, at the direction of Lublin, but we pass it sideways. We planned to have all day attraction in the palace complex at Kozlowka. There is famous Zamoyski family estate that consist of the 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. Ticket offices is located inside in one of the buildings. There is possibility 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, lady that was selling tickets was so much 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 work. Without long discussions we have purchased tickets for all possible 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 several antique bicycle travel accessories from past were located. On the wall hung a dozen harness. 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 unique to watch peacock walking free in the wild. Children liked this animal very much, and Justine called him a “baboon” (it is similar word in Polish). This peacock was clearly interested in us, probably because the cockerel (which we’ve bought yesterday) eaten by children. You had to be careful not to be pecked by 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 are not remember those times well, because we were kids then. However for our children these days it’s 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 function of palace – it was the repository of the museum of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts. Once these monuments was standing on the markets of major cities, today it is just an exhibit in the museum.
We are going straight forward, to theater building. There was photographic exhibition named “Wildlife Photography”. 70 beautiful photographs. Some of them are so unique that we watched them longer. Unfortunately girls had not enough patience to give as much attention as we wanted, can not even focus on pictures and just started to behave a little crazy. 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 exhibition of bathroom fittings, it means beautiful baths, showers and bath accessories. A collection was huge and this subject of exhibition is not so popular. Have you ever seen an exhibition of accessories for the bath?
Moving on, behind the palace. On the other side of the palace is a beautiful garden with thumbnails of ornamental trees, beautifully routed hedges and a fountain. We lack one thing – fun place for kids. Soon we saw a signpost with the inscription “playground”. Let’s go. It is not known why the playground is located away from the entire palace complex in the extreme part of the park. Had children playing bother tourists? After a moment of fun on the way back we past the birdhouse where we found some pheasants.
One wing of the palace is the 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 can not bring backpacks into the palace, so we had to leave our in your locker room. We were allowed to take photos (without flash light) and to make movie. The tour last 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 whole trip you have to go on red carpets. We can’t move out of them. Explain that to children. Are you curious what happens when you step out of the carpet? We’ve checked it – loud alarm in turned on.
The interiors of the palace is decorated in the style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There are authentic equipment of rooms, original paintings (mostly Zamoyski family members). We were walking the various rooms. Each had original equipment and general splendor.
After visiting the palace we headed further east, this time almost to the Chelm city. In the area of Chelm wilderness – we had no attractions to visit. What makes us a little frightened. We stopped for the night in the nice nature surroundings – Poleski National Park at the Grabniak Lake. We didn’t seen so clean lake for a long time.
Near the lake we found interesting shelter. I wonder what the author had in mind. Look at this:
