Branicki Family Residence Kraków

Monuments

Słoneczny dzień. Od lewej fragment drogi betonowej przy trawniku, na którym stoi jasny, murowany, kwadratowy budynek, z płaskim dachem i zamurowanymi pod nim ozdobnymi oknami. Przy nim dobudowany mały ganek z dachem dwuspadowym i drzwiami z łukiem. W ścianie po lewej małe okna. Po prawej jego stronie krzewy i wysokie drzewo w jesiennych barwach. Z tyłu drzewa i fragmentami bezchmurne niebo.

ul. Sasanek 2a, 31-985 Kraków Tourist region: Kraków i okolice

tel. +48 126408060

The late-Renaissance defensive manor in Branice – former village, currently the district of Krakow, is a seat of the Branicki family, commonly referred to as “granary”.

Branice was first mentioned in 1250 at the time of Boleslaw the Chaste, but archaeological findings confirm the existence of a settlement as early as the Neolithic Age.

The oldest fragments of the building date back to the 16th century, when it was a defensive and residential tower, which was rebuilt around 1603 on the orders of Castellan Jan Branicki, starost of Niepołomice, according to a design by the Kraków workshop of the royal architect Santi Gucci. At that time, a vestibule was added to the original single-space building. The Renaissance defensive residence, surrounded by an Italian garden, was the main representative seat of the Branicki family.

After reconstruction, a three-storey building was created on a sloping site on a near-square rectangular plan. The basement was built of broken stone, and the ground floor and first floor were brick. The façade is decorated with Renaissance sgraffito rustication, imitating stone masonry. The recessed roof is covered by an attic with arcades, a crenellated crest, i.e., denticulated finial, of the defensive wall, and jetties.

A hallway occupies the ground floor, with stairs to the first floor and a large chamber with a barrel vault and lunettes. On the first floor, a beamed wooden ceiling covers rooms with a similar bipartite layout. The great hall on the first floor is decorated with beautiful late Renaissance stonework, the work of Italian artists from Santi Gucci's workshop. The carved fireplace reaches the ceiling and is encased in bas-relief panels of Pińczów limestone. It is decorated with columns depicting animals, beams, cornices, and coats of arms in cartouches. The windows also have Renaissance frames and the entrance door portal with a concave cornice is decorated with acanthus leaves and a snail with a Gryf, the coat of arms of the Branicki family. The tripartite cellars are barrel-vaulted.

Near the loam house stands a single-storey brick classicist manor house from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Built on a rectangular plan with a two-bay layout and covered by a high-hipped roof, it is built on a rectangular plan with a two-bay layout. A columned portico leads into the court from the courtyard, and the garden elevation is accentuated by an avant-ccorp. The entire manor-park complex in Branice contains remnants of a landscape setting with a park, a granary from 1706, quadrangles and several free-standing cellars.

The loam house is home to the Nowa Huta Branch of the Archaeological Museum in Kraków, whose origins are linked to the construction of the Nowa Huta metallurgical plant and new housing estate. Starting in 1949, archaeologists oversaw the earthworks here and conducted excavations that have resulted in many discoveries. The Directorate of Excavations in Nowa Huta, established in 1950, was merged with the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw in 1953 and the Archaeological Museum in Kraków in 1955. Today, the exhibition presents the prehistory and early medieval history of the Nowa Huta area, the history of the manor and local archaeological finds. The Archaeological Picnic is held annually at the branch.