Radziszów

Radziszów stretches along the river Skawinka. The eastern part of the locality extends on the verge of the western part of the Pogórze Wielickie massif. Its highest elevation, Wytrzyszczek, offers a spectacular view.  
The earliest history of Radziszów is connected with the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec. The Benedictines  probably obtained Radziszów as part of the Order’s endowment in  the first half of the 12th century. The name of the locality comes from the old Slavic name  Radziesz or Radziszek.  
On the turn of the 13th/14th century the village received its charter based on Magdeburg law. Curiously enough, for two hundred years, the village was divided into two parts along the river Skawinka running through it. One part belonged to Silesian Duchies and the other to the Polish Kingdom.
After the first partition of Poland, Austrian authorities took over the property of the Tyniec Benedictines. The Radziszów estate was transferred to the Dzieduszycki family as compensation. In  1812  Countess  Ludwika Szeptycka née Dzieduszycka inherited the estate, which opened the period of positive change and investment in  Radziszów, including construction works at the manor house. After Ludwika Szeptycka passed away, the palace was passed down to successive heirs from the Dzieduszycki family. Among them we should mention Helena  (married name  Pawlikowska), a love of the outstanding painter and engraver Artur Grottger. In 1877,  Pawlikowska sold the estate to Countess Karolina Oksza-Orzechowska. In this way, a more-than-eighty-year period of the Dzieduszycki family’s presence in Radziszów came to an end. In the early 20th century the Municipality purchased the  manor house for school use. In the years 1909 - 1997 the school served children from Radziszów and Jurczyce.
In 1937 the Children’s Holiday House of the Kraków Poviat was opened here. In the late 1970s, a few metres from the manor house, construction of the Training and Teaching Centre Agora began.  It was planned to serve high-ranked officials. In 1980, members of the Solidarity (Solidarność) Trade Union opposed to the planned use and suggested the opening of a sanatorium for children instead. On the 1st of June 1981, Solidarność Rehabilitation Centre  opened and started its operation. It still serves little patients.
Other personages connected with Radziszów include General Józef Haller, who was baptized here; his mother Olga and his sisters Ewa and Anna, who are buried in the Haller family tomb in the local cemetery; Radziszów-born sailor Henryk Jaskuła, who performed a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe on his yacht Dar Przemyśla, as well as Wit Wisz – a sculptor who lived on the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, married  a Radziszów resident, and whose works can be seen in many churches and cemeteries in Kraków, Mogilany, Myślenice and in the local church. Pope John Paul II passed through the village in 2002. He stopped by the local church, blessing the faithful and a copy of the icon of Our Lady of Hallers.