Kraków – Branice

State of preservation:		The manor has survived in its entirety
Admission:		Entrance to the area around the manor is free of charge
Parking:		Next to the monument there are a few parking spaces
Searching difficulty:		Searching takes a short time
Access difficulty:		Access does not demand any effort
Subjective rating:		The building of an average looks

Driving directions:

Driving from Cracow-Nowa Huta down the road no 79 towards Sandomierz you reach the Igołomska St.,which you need to follow all the time till you arrive at the Donnelley printing house, situated on the left side of the road. Around 300 m past the printing house you have to turn right into the Szymański St., and after the following 500 m turn right again, into the Sasanek St. Driving down that springlike-called street, on the left side you will see the manor visible in the picture no 3, past which you need to turn left as to reach its gate. From there both manors are noticeable and you can stroll up to them.




Historical outline:

Branice appear for the first time in the historical documents in 1250. It was a village under Cracow belonging to the Świebodzic-Gryfit family, who assumed the surname – Branicki from the name of the place. The Branicki family were the owners of the village till the XVIIIth cent., with a short break in the XVth cent., when the village was ruled by the Wierzynek family from Cracow. The construction of a defensive manor (look at figure no 1) ended in 1603, and was supervised by an Italian architect, Santi Gucci. The Branicki family abandoned that manor very quickly and moved to the built one nearby, an already non-existing manor in the polish style. Since then an old manor served the function of a storehouse (warehouse) and gradually deteriorated. In the XIXth cent. Branice became the property of the Badeni family, who built there a third manor, which survived up to this day beside a storehouse. In 1952 a storehouse was refurbished and it was given an original appearance of a defensive manor. At present it houses a department of an Archeological Museum in Cracow.


Pictures:




Nearest castles:

Kraków

Kraków

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