Feeling like a princess at Łańcut Castle

I purposely wore this pretty pink dress this day because we were going to see an Aunt (my grandfather’s sister) that I’ve never met before and I wanted to look top notch.  From what I was told and from the pictures I did see, this aunt of mine was a super classy lady.  Well, go figure the same day I dress up my other aunt told us we were stopping by the castle that I was asking about.

That’s the thing about Europe.  There’s so much history that you can say, “Oh let’s just go for a stroll at the castle” and it’s no big deal.  The first castle I ever went to was Malbork Castle in Poland.  We went there when I was in second grade and I remember being in awe that I even stepped foot in a castle.  Now, here in North America we don’t really have history like this.  This is why European history always interested me because there was so much of it.  The U.S.A. has a lot of history, but as  Polish American I have to appreciate both.

Dress:  Tommy Hilfiger (TJ Maxx similar here) // Shoes:  Tory Burch // Bag:  SUKUTU Womens Summer Hand Weave Straw Top Handle Handbag Clutches

         

        

Pictured above are a few close ups of my outfit from that day.  Now of course below I’m going to talk a little bit about the history of the castle since I’ve been bombarding you with so much of that lately haha, sorry y’all!  For this castle, we didn’t take the tour around the castle (we were literally all toured out by this point of the trip) but we did walk around outside, since the garden was absolutely spectacular.

Łańcut Castle is actually a complex of buildings located in Łańcut, Poland.  This castle has been the residential home of the Pilecki, Lubomirski, and Potocki familes.  This castle is also surrounded by a beautiful park which is where we decided to walk around because it was so pretty.  This castle has been named as of September 1, 2005 as one of Poland’s official national Historic Monuments.

In the second half of the 14th century, the land was the property of the Toporczyk family who decided to build a wooden castle.  In the 16th century the castle belogned to the Stadnicki family.  In the 17th century the property was owned by the Lubomirski family, and then the Potocki family until 1944.

The history of Łańcut, is actually much older than when the castle that you see above was built in 1642.  The wooden castle mentioned before was obviously taken down and rebuilt.  Remember King Casimir III the Great that I spoke about last week during the Salt Mine tour?  He founded the town in accordance with the Magdeburg Rights in the 14th century.  

In 1692 Łańcut became property of Stanislaw Lubomirski, who in 1647 became the prince of the Holy Roman Empire.  During the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1656, King John II Casimir visited the castle.  In 1657 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the Swedish ally, George II Rakoczi.  In the late 17th century after the 1688 fire, the castle was restored by Tylman Van Gameren, a Dutch-born Polish architect and engineer.

The baroque palazzo in fortezza in Łańcut underwent its first radical alterations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Its owners at the time were Duke Stanislaw Lubomirski and his wife Izabella nee Czartoyska.  After Lubomirskis death in 1783, the Duchess continued to work on the alterations of the castle by herself.  Izabela also converted the fortress into a palce-park complex, which is the park you see today that is being maintained.  After Izabela’s death in 1816 Łańcut was inherited by her grandchildren and members of the Potocki family.  For the next 100 years the castle became the center of their hereditary family estate, legally established in 1830.  The Duchess’ grandson and heir, conducted some repairs to the castle, however he erected a complex of horse-riding facilities including stables and three carriage houses, which is why in some pictures if you do a google search there are carriages.

What I thought was really cool is the walkway isn’t made out of stone, that’s all wood.  So beautiful.

The biggest changes in the castle happened when the Duchess’s great-great-grandson, Roman Potocki, who married Elizibeta nee Radziwil took over.  They rearranged the estate while also providing the 17th century structure with electricity, water pipes, sewers, and central airflow heating.  In 1880 the castle also received a telephone connection with the hunters’ palace in Julin.

Roman and Elizibeta Potocki hired a French architect Amand Louis Bauque and graphic designer Albert Pio to transform the residence from old Neo-Gothic to Neo-Baroque.  

Nowadays Łańcut Castle is one of the most famous aristocratic residences in Poland.  Now, let’s take a look at the beautiful garden, because it really was absolutely stunning.

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