Baranów Sandomierski b is a small town in southern Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, in the Subcarpathian Voivodship

Subcarpathian Voivodeship

Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

, Tarnobrzeg County

Tarnobrzeg County

Tarnobrzeg County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Tarnobrzeg, although...

 on the Vistula River, with 1,440 inhabitants (02.06.2009).

Castle

The town is well known for its picturesque Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 castle / palace

Baranów Sandomierski Castle

Baranów Sandomerski Castle is a Mannerist castle located in Baranów Sandomierski in the Subcarpathian Voivodship, south-east Poland. The castle is one of the most important Mannerist structures in Poland....

 built in 1591-1606.

It is known as "little Wawel

Wawel

Wawel is an architectural complex erected over many centuries atop a limestone outcrop on the left bank of the Vistula River in Kraków, Poland, at an altitude of 228 metres above the sea level. It is a place of great significance to the Polish people. The Royal Castle with an armoury and the...

". This castle is a class zero monument. It is believed to be the work of the famous architect, Santi Gucci

Santi Gucci

Santi Gucci was a Polish-Italian architect and sculptor.-Biography:He moved to Poland after 1550, most probably from Florence, and became the court artist of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, his queen consort Anna Jagiellonka and his successor Stefan Batory of Poland...

, the court artist of King Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...

. The castle was built around 1591–1606 for Rafał and Andrzej Leszczyński. Its style comes from the Italian renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

. By the end of the 17th century, the next owners were the Lubomirscy family, who decided to change the residence. They hired a Dutch architect, who added columns on the inside of the castle courtyard, on which there was a gallery of art by Giovanni Battista

Giovanni Battista

Giovanni Battista, was a common Italian given name in the 16th-18th centuries, which in English means "John the Baptist". The French variation is "Jean-Baptiste". Common nicknames include Giambattista, Gianbattista or Giovambattista. The Genoese nickname was Baciccio, and a common shortening was...

 (unfortunately all the art was destroyed in two fires in 1848 and 1898).

See also

List of cities in Poland