Manor and Park Complex in Warka–Winiary: Casimir Pulaski Museum

Winiary is an unusual place; it is full of history, shrouded in legends, and dotted with curiosities. The first manor was built here no later than in the early 1600s. In 1671, a district governor had “a beautiful home” here. Antoni Stanisław Szczuka, a secretary of King John III Sobieski, is likely to have used the site to erect another manor along with farm buildings according to a design by Agostino Vincenzo Locci.

In the 1700s, Winiary belonged to Józef Pułaski, who was Casimir Pulaski’s father, governor of Warka, lawyer, politician, and marshal of the Bar Confederation. Winiary often changed owners and the Manor was rebuilt several times. The last private owner of the property was Count Wacław Godziemba-Dąmbski (until 1945). After World War II, the Manor hosted the first Municipal Middle School in Warka with boarding rooms and housing for teachers, a high school, and the Regional Museum of the Warka Branch of the Polish Tourism and Sightseeing Society (Polskie Towarzystwo Turstyczno-Krajoznawcze).

In January 1967, the Manor started housing the historical and biographical Casimir Pulaski Museum, dedicated to the Hero of Two Nations as well as Polish immigration to the United States of America.

The Manor is surrounded with a 37-acre park, spreading over an escarpment leading to its lower part. From there, visitors will have easy access to the Pilica River. Along the way, they will find the Casimir Pulaski monument (unveiled in 1979), a romantic colonnade, and the Blessed Virgin Mary shrine, located at its base, on the slope of the escarpment. Not long ago, one could enjoy a broad view of the Pilica River Valley from here, and the southern slope was lined with vineyards reportedly commissioned by Queen Bona Sforza.

From 2008 through 2013, the Complex underwent a project entitled “Revitalization of the Manor and Park Complex in Warka,” co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the Regional Operational Program for Mazovia for the years 2007–2013 and the district of Grójec. The project involved an overhaul of the Manor, replacing the barn with a Museum and Education Center, and landscaping works in the Park.