History

In 1276, in the area belonging to Wierzbięta, Bolesław the Chaste ordered the land allocator Uciech to establish the village of Przeginia. Over time, part of the village, owned by the Benedictines from Tyniec and later by the Canons Regular of the Lateran from Kraków, was named Przeginia Narodowa. The other part of the locality (later Przeginia Narodowa) remained in private hands. In the 15th century, the owner was Henryk Ligęza. In 1440 the property belonged to Żegota of Gumienice and next to Jan Skawiński. At the end of the 18th century, the later Przeginia Narodowa was a royal property. In the mid-19th century, it was held by the Austrian government; then in the 1880s, it belonged to the Agricultural Society in Kraków.  At the beginning of the 20th century, the entire Przeginia was owned by the Kraków Cathedral Chapter. 

The 19th-century history of the estate in Przeginia, originally of about 100 ha of arable land, meadows and and forests, is not fully understood. It is not known who purchased it from the Austrian government at the end of the 18th or at the beginning of the 19th century. Yet, initially, the owner was one of the counts from the Dębski family and later the Dzieduszyckis. At an unspecified time, but not long after the mid-19th century, it was acquired by someone from the close family of the famous painter Jan Matejko (hence its colloquial name Matejkówka). Around 1894 (a year after his father’s death), Jerzy Matejko became the owner of the property in Przeginia Narodowa. Preserved court documents show that a few years later he parcelled out the land among the local residents, and the manor with a garden was purchased by the village to establish a school.

The manor house was built in the 1830s on the site of an earlier building (of which possible traces can be seen in the east barrel-vaulted cellars of the building). It was a wooden, one-storey structure with a regular, two-bay interior layout. On the north side, it bordered on farm buildings arranged in a horseshoe, and from the west, it was separated from the village by a stone wall. Ca. 1910 it was partially altered: a new annexe and a terrace were built in the west part, and front steps were added. There was a columned portico at the north façade. During WW2, the manor house was converted into a customs house on the border of the General Government. After the war, it was taken over by the State Land Fund. A school was installed in the manor building. In 2001 the complex was taken over by Czernichów Commune, which lets the facility to the Women’s Association of Przeginia. It houses a day room and a library and hosts various local events and meetings.

Description

The manor house is located in the north-east part of the village, away from the rural development along the road, in the middle of a trapezoid plot. Access to the manor house from the west is by a dirt road connecting the complex with a transit route. The final section of the road, already within the manor complex, is planted with a line of dozen alders forming a short alley.

A wooden building on a high wall base with basement windows. The cellars in the east part have barrel vaults, perhaps a remnant of an older building. A one-storey structure built on a regular rectangular plan with a west extension; a wide recessed terrace in the south-west corner, preceded by massive brick steps with a solid brick balustrade. The terrace is embraced with an openwork wooden balustrade decorated with obliquely crossing slats; a similar solution in the wooden arches stretched between the poles supporting the roof structure (reference to health resort architecture). The main entrance on the central axis of the south façade is preceded by brick steps.

The manor house and the surrounding greenery are neglected. The plot is surrounded by a mesh on metal posts. Iron entrance gate and wicket; not locked.  The site is accessible from the outside.

Author of the note Grzegorz Młynarczyk, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 07/2015 

Bibliography

• A. Siwek, Karta Ewidencji Zabytków 1993r.
• B.Michońska, Przeginia Narodowa –ogród podworski, Kraków 1985
• J.Zinkow “Wokół Czernichowa, Liszek, Zabierzowa i Wielkiej Wsi część II” Przewodnik monograficzny, Kraków 2010
• P. Libicki, Dwory i pałace wiejskie w Małopolsce i na Podkarpaciu, Poznań 2012, pp. 358-359