Krośniewice: Museum, Palace and Church
Accommodation in Krośniewice
Krośniewice offers several distinct points of interest for a culture-focused trip: the Jerzy Dunin-Borkowski Museum in a former Neoclassical manor house, the Rembieliński Palace with its landscaped park, a church with a single nave laid out on a cross-shaped plan, and a historic connection to the narrow-gauge railway. When planning your stay, you can decide whether collections, architecture, places of remembrance or transport history are your priority.
Museum in a former manor house
The Neoclassical building complex of a former manor house, dating from around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, now houses the Jerzy Dunin-Borkowski Museum in Krośniewice. Its historic construction and present-day use as a museum offer two reasons to consider Krośniewice from a cultural perspective: the building recalls a former manor house, while the collections have their own distinct focus.
The collections comprise several thousand objects and include numismatics and a faleristics collection from the 19th and 20th centuries. Numismatics concerns coins, while faleristics concerns orders and decorations. These two fields have different focuses, giving the museum a thematic breadth that extends beyond the history of the building.
Palace, park and different layers of history
The Rembieliński Palace in Krośniewice was built in 1870 for Pelagia z Zamoyskich Rembielińska and her two sons, to a design by Leandro Marconi. The ensemble includes a gatehouse, an orangery and administrative buildings. This directs attention not only to the palace as the main building, but also to the other parts of the ensemble.
The extensive landscaped park surrounding the palace is now neglected; its present layout probably dates from the beginning of the 19th century. In the park stands an obelisk erected by Rajmund Rembieliński in 1813 in memory of Prince Józef Poniatowski. The chronology is noteworthy: the probable origins of the park’s present layout and the 1813 obelisk both predate the palace, built in 1870.
Church: construction and architecture
The present-day church was built between 1866 and 1872 at the initiative of parishioners and the Rembieliński family, to a design by Franciszek Tourelle. On 6 October 1878, Wincenty Teofil Chościak-Popiel, Bishop of Kujawy and Kalisz, consecrated the church. Construction and consecration mark separate milestones: construction ended in 1872, followed by the consecration in 1878.
The church has a single nave and is laid out on the plan of a Latin cross. Two-storey sacristies are located by the presbytery; at the front stands a tower with a clock set in a moulded surround. A Latin-cross plan has a longer longitudinal arm and a shorter transverse arm. The presbytery is the choir area; this makes it easier to understand the position of the sacristies and the overall form of the church.
A historic purpose of the narrow-gauge railway
Another point of interest is the narrow-gauge railway. The Krośniewice Miasto–Ostrowy Wąskotorowe section was built to supply the sugar factory in Ostrowy. This brings the purpose of a railway connection for industrial supply into view, alongside the history of the buildings and collections.
Discover more destinations: Strzelce, Chochołów, Zgórze, Żychlin, Szubina, Bielawki, Kutno, Krzyżanów.
Return to the main travel overview: Kutno.
