Category: Landscape

In the mid-nineteenth century, the lands of the complex belonged to the nearby Roman Catholic parish of St. Francis Xavier. The former manor house was erected in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was built in the classicist style, facing south. It is wooden, plastered and has a basement with a four-column portico from the front. In 1865 the tsarist authorities confiscated the property, that came under the control of the empire's treasury, specifically the authorities of the governorate. It was leased first to the Dziewicki family, who lived in Krasnystaw for many years. After the stay of the Dziewicki family, a souvenir in the form of a modest building was left in our city. It is the grave of the family in the parish cemetery in Krasnystaw. The last tenants were the Radomyski family. Henryk Radomyski served as the mayor of Krasnystaw. He was arrested by Germans and murdered at the Lublin Castle in February 1942. After 1944, the manor land was parceled out and the buildings were handed over to various institutions. The government estate "Starostwo Krasnostawskie" consisted of two manors before the war: „Starostwo”, on the territory of which the manor house stood and the grange "Rońsko". Currently, the manor house has undergone a thorough renovation and since October 2015 it has been the seat of the Center for Social Integration.

It is considered as the largest castle in Poland. It was erected on the eastern side of the Vistula River. The castle was built and expanded at the end of the XVI century on the site of the former family seat of the Krupski family by the Chełm chamberlain Paweł Orzechowski, coat of arms Rogala. It was expanded in 1604 – 1608. The castle was in the hands of the Orzechowski family until 1644. This historical building was located on a platform similar to a rectangle. An ensemble consists of the proper castle and the castle boroughs. These buildings form a closed fortified circuit. It is made of stone and brick. The castle proper is located in the western part and separated by an internal moat, included in the perimeter of the defensive walls with bastions on the north-east and south corners. In the area of castle boroughs there was once an economic courtyard with buildings and the main entrance from the north-east with a drawbridge and a gate. The castle was destroyed in 1648 – 1660 during the Cossack invasion and the Swedish Deluge. Since the second half of the XVIII century, the castle has been in ruins.

At the beginning of the XVI century, the town was fortified with a defensive wall and a moat. The walls were about 2.6 m thick. They had several towers and three gates. The urban layout of the town has been preserved in its main part the same as in the Middle Ages. The market square has compact buildings from the XVIII - XIX centuries. Particularly valuable in terms of historic are the frontages: north and east. The houses have late Baroque and classicist facades. Under the entire old town there is a network of corridor and chamber type dungeons drilled in loess, in three and sometimes five floors. After the fall of the November Uprising, the governorate authorities issued an order that the employees of the Krasnystaw Magistrate cause the planting of trees in the park. They were supposed to give shade to tsarist officers and officials with their families walking on holidays. In honor of Tsar Alexander II, the park was named Alexandria Square. Surrounded by tenement houses, the town square was paved and there the army arranged parade drills. In the central place of the market the town hall was situated. Its foundations have remained to this day. The second important building with a similar character to the town hall was ‘Dom Sejmikowy’, located at the market square. During the fighting in the years 1914 – 1915, at least half of the buildings in the market square were destroyed, including the town hall and the ‘sejmik’ building rebuilt in 1923. In 1916, the Austrian occupation authorities established the first town council in Krasnystaw. It was located in a tenement house at the corner of the present Poniatowskiego Street and 3 Maja Square, where the seat - the city magistrate - was temporarily located. The councillors elected the mayor of the town and his deputy from among themselves. The council dealt with solving the issues of the town's population, the functioning of institutions subordinate to the magistrate and submitted postulates to the occupation authorities mainly for help for residents. In 1919, the Town Square was named May 3 Square in memory of the events of 1917, when a huge demonstration was held here in honor of the promulgation of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. One of the most outstanding Polish graphic designers of the XIX century, Antoni Oleszczyński, was born in Krasnystaw. On the wall of one of the restored tenement houses by the park, you can see a commemorative plaque dedicated to him. He was associated with Krasnystaw, where he was born at the end of the XVIII century. He lived from 1794 to 1879, of which he spent over 50 years in France. As an emigrant, he missed Poland very much, to which he never returned. He was a talented graphic designer, he left behind many souvenirs, a modest part of which is owned by the Regional Museum in Krasnystaw. Currently, it has a collection of Antoni Oleszczyński's steel ricites numbering over 200 items, including copies with a handwritten description of the author. In 2008, the town square was restored.

At the back of the former seminary there is a Biblical Garden of St. John Paul II. It spreads on the surface of 3 hectares. A prelate Henryk Kapica, a former parish priest of the St. Francis’s Church, was an originator and founder of this garden.The main theme of the garden were Stations ot the Cross. The official opening took place on June 17th 2012. There are about 100 species of biblical plants. There is a plate with Polish and Latin name at each plant, a scripture quote and a few sentences about this plant. The garden abounds in plants rarely grown in Poland (including Babylonian willow, ‘burning bush’). For winter lots of these plants are transferred to plants are transferred to the interior of the Jesuit college and the church, where temperature is more close to natural. Next to the aforementioned Carmel, a garden was created in honor of the great missionary St. Franciszek Ksawery, patron of the local parish. It was arranged according to the art of Japan and China, i.e. wind and water. The centre of the garden is occupied by a chinese – style chapel. The harmony of the garden was achieved through soft shapes and flowing lines, uneven terrain, winding paths and water reservoirs. The composition of the garden is complemented, among others, by plants: Chinese metasequoia, Manchurian willow, Japanese golden-grained, star magnolia, palm maples. The last part of the garden is consecrated in honor of the blessed priest Zygmunt Pisarski. Its centre is a chapel in the Old Polish style.

A curiosity of a Krasnystaw park is a kneelig tree. It is an ashleaf maple growing at a town square. It is about 67 years old. Its special feature is the trunk construction. In 2018 this maple became ‘The Tree of the Year 2018’ in Polish edition of the contest organised by Gaja Club. In 2019 this tree represented Poland in a plebiscite - European Tree of the Year 2019.