This modest, but enchanting, manor house with remnants became the gift of the Polish nation to Maria Konopnicka, a Polish writer, in 1903. It was there where the artist spent the last years of her life, and many years after her death the site returned to the Polish nation as a museum devoted to the writer, and that is what makes it unique.

History

The village of Żarnowiec belonged to the Płaz family in the 14th and 15th centuries, to the Żarnowiecki family in the 16th century, and then to the Chrząstowski family. On the initiative of the next owners, the Rogoyski family, in the late 18th century a one-storey manor house was erected on the site formerly occupied probably by a fortified manor house or a castellum. Other subsequent property owners were: Count Titus von Mier, Komorowski family, Stojowski family and Biechoński family. In the later 19th century, the manor house was extended to the west by the addition of a multi-storey part; alterations at that time also included adding a glass porch at the front and a veranda on the opposite side. In 1903, the manor house with the rest of the farm was purchased by the Polish community and transferred to Maria Konopnicka as a gift of the Polish nation. In 1956, Zofia Mickiewiczowa, daughter of Maria Konopnicka, living in the manor house, gave the manor and the park to the Polish nation. A year later, the Museum of Maria Konopnicka was established in Żarnowiec, and in 1960 the site was opened to visitors. In 1968, the manor house underwent full-scale renovation, mouldy wooden walls were replaced with masonry walls of the same thickness. The museum has been operating continuously since its establishment.

Description

The manor house surrounded by a park is located in the central part of the village, in an area descending in terraces towards a river. It adjoins the valley of the Jasiołka river to the north and east, a local road to the south-west, and farm buildings and arable fields on the remaining sides.

The manor house is located in the middle of the park, on the edge of a slope, with its front facing the south, with a long avenue of limes and hornbeams and a decorative lawn in front of the entrance. The manor house was built on floor plan in the shape of an elongated rectangle, with two rectangular porches, one porch at the front and one on the opposite sides, and a cloister along the northern wall. It is possible to distinguish two construction stages based on the silhouette of the manor house: cuboidal one-storey body of the eighteenth-century manor house, covered with a gable roof, embellished with two porches, and mulit-storey body of the nineteenth-century annex with a transverse roof ridge. The original one-storey building was built of larch and fir wood, on stone basement, but the building material used for the construction of the walls was replaced with brick during renovation. The multi-storey annex is made of brick. Roofs in both parts are covered with wood shingles. The front, southern façade is seven-axial, with an asymmetrically situated glass porch with a wooden structure and a single-axial multi-storey part to the west. The north façade is also seven-axial, but is characterised by different proportions resulting from a downslope and a stone foundation of considerable size on that side; it is one-storey structure with a single-axial outermost multi-storey part. The western façade is pierced by openings in the middle, on a single axis and on both storeys. The older part of the manor house is modest; wooden porches, veranda and massive chimneys with caps are its only decoration. The newer part was decorated with a simple cornice between the storeys, window headers in the form of broken strips of cornice, with its both gables featuring slender window pairs topped with semicircular arches and adorned with a niche in the middle, as well as a brick cornice and brick inserts. Despite slight alterations, the manor house has retained its original two-bay interior layout with a hallway on the axis. The structures features an authentic exhibition of manorial interiors, with preserved interior décor and fittings from the period when the poet lived in the manor house.

The monument is open to visitors. It houses the Museum of Maria Konopnicka.

compiled by Mieczysław Kuś, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Rzeszów, 12-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Dubis W., Łopatkiewicz Z., Dworek Marii Konopnickiej w Żarnowcu, Warsaw 1980
• Polakowski S., Pozostałości założeń dworskich województwa podkarpackiego, Krosno 2012,
• Libicki P., Dwory i pałace wiejskie w Małopolsce i na Podkarpaciu, Poznań 2012
• J. Piórecki, Ogrody i parki dworskie województwa krośnieńskiego, Bolestraszyce 1998