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Lipowiec Castle And Vistula Ethnographic Park Day Trip From Krakow
Leave central Krakow and travel by luxury minivan to Wygielzow – a small village roughly forty-five minutes west in Krakow Province. As your guide drives, you’ll learn about Poland’s folk culture and village life between the 17th and 20th centuries. Your destination is Vistula Ethnographic Park, a large open-air museum at the foot of Lipowiec Castle Hill that’s home to more than 20 different cultural exhibits.
Comprising a reconstructed peasant village with wooden houses, places of worship and a manor house, the museum aims to introduce you to Polish peasant life in bygone days. Walk around the peasant village with your guide, exploring inside its pretty huts, and calling in at a 19th-century tavern – Zagroda Inn -- as well as two mills and a wicker workshop. Head inside the house of the village chief to see it adorned with rich folk décor and admire the architecture of the village presbytery and school.
Contrast the smaller building of the village with the museum’s 18th-century manor house – built to represent a house in the town of Droginia -- and hear how it’s now used to host chamber music concerts once a year.
Just outside of the grounds of the open-air museum is Lipowiec Castle, and you’ll explore this, too, with your guide. Learn about its 13th-century roots, starting out as a watch tower before turning into a bishops’ residence, then a prison, and then as a fortress for both the Swedish and Austrian armies. Stroll around inside and walk up to its tallest tower to enjoy views of the forest and the open-air museum that sprawls across the hillside below.
After three hours in Wygielzow, exploring both the museum and the castle, your guide will drive you back to central Krakow, where your tour ends.
