The present Conference Centre of the Polish Academy of Science is housed in the former Konopka Family Manor in Mogilany. A prominent personage among former owners of Mogilany was Wawrzyniec Spytko Jordan, the Voivode of Samdomierz. Enchanted by Mogilany, in 1560 he built a wooden palace here with a fine garden and a scenic park. Unfortunately, of Spytko’s estate, only some remnants of the Renaissance park have survived including Poland’s unique hornbeam avenues. Among many trees creating the avenues one can still see some which have been here from the very beginning, perhaps planted by Spytko Jordan himself.
The size of the original palace is evidenced by the fact that when Potocki dismantled Spytko’s deteriorated palace in 1764, he was able to build the manor, a granary, two breweries and office building from its remnants. The last owners of the palace – the Konopka family – purchased the residence in Mogilany in 1802 and managed it until the outbreak of the Second World War. The present form of the manor and the surrounding park was their idea. After the war, the landed estate belonging to the manor was parcelled out between local farmers and the manor itself nationalised. No earlier than 1967 the palace was transferred to the Polish Academy of Sciences which has it thoroughly renovated and transformed into a conference centre. Currently the park consists of three gardens:
The Italian-style garden – the earliest part of the park, near-square in form, separated into four frame plots by crossing avenues, with a circular flower bed in the centre of the square. The flower bed and the avenues are created from common box. A Norway spruce grows in the centre of each plot. Hornbeam bercaux are the most precious and undoubtedly the finest adornments of this part of the park.
The English-style garden. Huge specimen of pedunculate oak, common ash and littleleaf linden grow here. This part of the park also contains the main entrance avenue set with huge ash trees and horse chestnuts, about a hundred years’ old. The English-style garden has a small pond.
The forest garden is situated in the north-western part of the park with the remnants of a fine larch avenue, the extension of the western berceau. On the southern side of the park a viewing gallery opens to the panorama of the Beskidy and Carpathian ranges. On the other side stretches a magnificent panorama of Kraków. The area is perfectly suited for leisure and meetings.
Source: Archive of Near Kraków LAG
The size of the original palace is evidenced by the fact that when Potocki dismantled Spytko’s deteriorated palace in 1764, he was able to build the manor, a granary, two breweries and office building from its remnants. The last owners of the palace – the Konopka family – purchased the residence in Mogilany in 1802 and managed it until the outbreak of the Second World War. The present form of the manor and the surrounding park was their idea. After the war, the landed estate belonging to the manor was parcelled out between local farmers and the manor itself nationalised. No earlier than 1967 the palace was transferred to the Polish Academy of Sciences which has it thoroughly renovated and transformed into a conference centre. Currently the park consists of three gardens:
The Italian-style garden – the earliest part of the park, near-square in form, separated into four frame plots by crossing avenues, with a circular flower bed in the centre of the square. The flower bed and the avenues are created from common box. A Norway spruce grows in the centre of each plot. Hornbeam bercaux are the most precious and undoubtedly the finest adornments of this part of the park.
The English-style garden. Huge specimen of pedunculate oak, common ash and littleleaf linden grow here. This part of the park also contains the main entrance avenue set with huge ash trees and horse chestnuts, about a hundred years’ old. The English-style garden has a small pond.
The forest garden is situated in the north-western part of the park with the remnants of a fine larch avenue, the extension of the western berceau. On the southern side of the park a viewing gallery opens to the panorama of the Beskidy and Carpathian ranges. On the other side stretches a magnificent panorama of Kraków. The area is perfectly suited for leisure and meetings.
Source: Archive of Near Kraków LAG
