Dołęga, dwór
fot. Marcin Klag
Dołęga
Manor
Amid the flat landscape between the Wisła and Dunajec rivers, surrounded with trees and preceded by a round lawn, stands a country manor. It has the modest and characteristic aspect of a traditional home of Polish gentry: wooden, whitewashed walls, a tall shingle roof, and a front porch supported on two pillars overgrown with vines.
The first manor in Dołęga was built around 1820, when the village was bought by private owners at the auction of former ecclesiastical estates appropriated by the Austrian government. Prior to that, Dołęga belonged to the domain of the Kraków bishopric. The present manor was built on the commission of Maria Pikuzińska-Güntherowa, who as a child saw the tragic events of the 1846 peasants’ uprising. Remembering her childhood experience, she later established a school for peasant children in Dołęga. The daughter of Maria and Aleksander Günther, Maria Güntherówna married writer Ignacy Maciejowski, known as ‘Sewer’. The manor then saw many famous visitors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: the poets and painters Adam Asnyk, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Lucjan Rydel, Stanisław Przybyszewski, and the young Stanisław Wyspiański.
The estate escaped dismantling after the second world war, and until the 1970s it remained the property of Jadwiga Tumidajska, née Wolska, who inherited it from her ancestors. In 1973, she presented the manor – intended for a museum – to the Polish State. For the last 20 years the house has been cared for by Irena and Władysław Konieczny on behalf of the Tarnów District Museum.
This single-storey manor was built in larch wood, on a frame structure and the plan of a horseshoe. The main circulation passage, with the porch, dining room, drawing room, and cabinet, was more public, while the wings were private: the eastern wing hid the bedroom, and the western contained the kitchen with the pantry. In the drawing room, furnished in Biedermeier and art nouveau styles, photographs of previous inhabitants and their guests can be seen. The corner study, fitted with a 19th-century a walnut furniture set, contains mementoes of the January Uprising and the Peasants’ Rebellion. Adjoining it is the room of Professor Michał Siedlecki, a famous naturalist and traveller. The last room on display – Jadwiga Tumidajska’s bedroom, with furniture in an art nouveau style – boasts two paintings by Stanisław Wyspiański, a gift of Jan Bartosiński to the hostess. Preserved in the historical interiors are stone and tiled stoves from the mid- -19th century.
