It was an attempt to find the Polish national style by building on the tradition of old Polish designs.

History of the site

In the 19th century, Baranówka was part of the estate of Kraków bishops,

administered by the Wielopolski family. After the defeat of the January Uprising in 1864, in the imperial enfranchisement reform, the Austrian authorities separated Baranówka from the Luborzyce estate as a separate locality. Around 1904 the estate of Count Wielopolski was parceled out. One of the participants in the transaction was Józef Amoraux. He purchased approx. 150 hectares of arable land, largely overlapping with the area of today’s Baranówka. In the 1920s, Józef Amoraux launched impressive investment projects in this area. He built a modern mechanical mill, and in the years 1923-1926 he built a new, brick manor house in place of an old wooden one. After his death in 1936, the property went into the hands of his son, also Józef, who continued to manage it until September 1939. After the September 1939 defeat, Józef Amoraux left for France where he joined the Polish army. In 1940 he was taken prisoner by the Germans. During WW2, the Baranówka estate was managed by his sister Maria, who had married Jan Kozłowski in 1939. During the war, the Kozłowskis supported the underground and aided the professors of Kraków University. After the end of the war, the Amoraux family’s land was parcelled out and the manor house turned into a storage for farm tools. Later, it served as a school and a rural public library. Since the early 1980s, the manor house has been fulfilling a residential function. At present, the manor house is inhabited by several families, although it needs urgent renovation. At the beginning of the 21st century, the commune authorities decided to sell it. However, heirs of the owners of 1/4 of the property were found and the transaction was suspended due to the unsettled status of the property.

Description of the site

The village of Baranówka is located about 30 km north-east of Kraków. The manor complex is located in the central part of the village, at the intersection of local roads leading from Baranówka to Pielgrzymowice (from the north and west) and to Zastów (from the south).

The manor house was built on an elongated rectangular plan and clearly divided into two sections: the main body of elegant and residential character and a side wing serving auxiliary functions. The edifice combines the qualities of late Baroque architecture typical of landed gentry with modernist elements. In the main sections, there are rooms in a two and three-bay layout. They radiate from a vestibule with a staircase leading up to a habitable loft. The side wing rooms have a one-bay and two-bay layout and a vestibule in the middle. In the vestibule, there are wooden stairs leading to the first floor.

A brick pillar can be seen in the centre of the main hall. This part was covered by a “Polish” multi-pitched roof. In the east part, the roof, projecting over the portico, covers the residential space. The side wing has a gable roof. The central axis of the main body is articulated by a columned gallery in front of the main entrance to the house (from the east). Above it, there is an avant-corps of the mansard room with one three-leaf window. There used to be seven stone steps leading up to it. Currently, resting on their ruins, there are makeshift wooden stringer stairs. On the sides of the three-axis mansard, there are two rectangular skylights covered by double-sloped roofs. The north wing of the east façade has five axes; in its centre, there is a single-axis “tower” covered by a hip roof. The north façade has no openings. The west façade of the wing has two windows and two entrance openings: to the middle vestibule and a connector between the wing and the body of the house. The entrance to the vestibule is preceded by a small landing accessible through eight concrete steps. The west façade of the body has seven axes and a three-axis, three-sided avant-corps with the entrance to the west hall with two windows on the sides. The avant-corpse has a multi-sloped roof. On its sides, as from the east, there are small, single skylights. The south façade has two axes. Above it, a mansard wall with one window protruding from the roof plane.

The main body has a basement in the north part; the north wing has a full basement. The plastered façades have modest artistic décor: a plinth, simple window sills, a plaster apron running around the walls at the level of window frames and cornices topping the external walls.

On the east side of the manor house, there is a park of approximately 1.5 ha. The spatial layout of the park is not legible. In its south-east corner, there is a painted, glazed, stone statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on a brick column. Cement steps lead up to the statue from the south (from a local road).

The site is not fenced and is open from the outside.

Author of the note Grzegorz Młynarczyk, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 04/2016

Bibliography

• Krupiński A.B., Karta ewidencyjna zabytku, Kraków 1990
• Libicki P., Dwory i pałace wiejskie w Małopolsce i na Podkarpaciu, Poznań 2012, p. 13