Poland has many palaces and castles. There are plenty of them going for waste and trying to be sold. I guess it’s one of the very few places in the world where you can buy a property like that for quite cheap for what they are. Still not cheap enough for normal people to buy them. Not to mention that a house like that has to be maintained, renovated, cleaned and that brings the expenses quite high. Fortunately Kobylniki Palace is one of the few lucky ones which survived the hard times... and after many years went back to the family that had it before the war. That happened only last year. You would think the war was over a long time ago but after World War II the palace was actually used as apartments for farmers working on a State Agricultural Farm… so as a form of collective farming on fields that belonged to the government. Later when the communism was over the Twardowski family still had to fight in court to get their property back. After around twenty years.. they have it.
Nowadays the family is slowly bringing the Palace to its old beauty and they are doing a pretty good job. Kobylniki Palace was nominated for 7 New Wonders of Poland by National Geographic and although it didn’t win we had to see it.
Kobylniki Palace unlike most of the palaces and castles is quite easily reachable by bus so that’s what we take to get there from Poznan. Although not visible from the main road, where the bus passes, it’s just next to it. After just a short walk through a charming alley along farm fields, we see the gate and the palace. Even though it's small it's still very impressive with it's garden, little lake and decades or centuries old trees. It has room for only a maximum of 50 guests and it’s not particularly busy there… The first thing that draws our attention are the photographs of the family that owns the place, the Twardowski family. They’re placed on the walls of the common areas and some of them are quite funny like a woman showing her tongue. I guess we mostly think that people from the last centuries were very serious but they were just people like me and you and thats what those pictures show.
To get to our room we take an amazing, round staircase. It’s small but it’s unbelievable. The wooden stairs squeak like if they were medieval and not from the late XIX century which gives it another fairytale-like tone. Unfortunately our room is not all kept in style. There are no ornaments on the walls or ceiling, the bed is just normal and so is the bathroom. I wonder if it was like that or was it “made modern” during the soviet times? Hopefully the family will try to alter it a bit in the future. But we have a spectacular terrace with a view over the garden and although it’s very cold I’m highly motivated to use it. Wrapped in blankets I decide to do a bit of reading… You see the beauty of the palace and the neighborhood is that there is nothing to see really. So there is no rush just sheer joy as the only thing you can do is enjoy… and eat! Downstairs there is a restaurant which serves pretty nice food and they change their menu quite often.
Except for the interiors there is also a small park where you can chill out, walk around or feed a few ducks and a swan which already associates people with food and comes closer.
In the night, when the sky is clear, the park is a perfect spot to watch stars. No bigger cities means not too much light and so the night sky is beautiful and black.
How to get to Kobylniki Palace?
From the Central Station in Poznan you have to take a bus that goes to Wałcz and get off at Kobylniki just next to the Palace (although you won’t see it from the bus, too many trees). The ticket costs 17 zl and there are 3 buses per day. You can check on e-podroznik.pl (although it sounds very polish, the page is available in English as well). WATCH OUT! There are more villages called Kobylniki and another one of those is actually just on the way to the Palace so make sure you go to the one next to Obrzycko.
How much does it cost?
A private room with a private bathroom for two costs 200 zl. It includes a breakfast. Renting the whole Palace is 3500 zl. Other prices you can check on their webpage. May google translate be with you:)
