Travel to Poland: Agricultural Estates

A gallery of the great estates--great houses and even greater barns--owned by the Polish aristocracy until World War II. The captions refer to conditions in 1995.

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Perhaps the best known of the old aristocratic estates: Nieborow, west of Warsaw, southeast of Lowicz. Confiscated from the Radziwill family after 1945, it became a museum. The mansard roof is a 20th century addition.

Inside, a tiled oven occupies a corner with an elegance that makes a fireplace seem uncouth.

Walewice, west of Lowicz. Once visited by Napoleon, in Russell's time it belonged to a Grabinski family. By 1995 it was a state farm specializing in the production and sale of race horses.

Approach to yet another estate.

At the end of the driveway: Kopuszewo, south of Poznan, northeast of Leszno. In 1995 it was an operating state farm, with offices in the mansion.

Orlovo, east of Torun. In Russell's time the estate belonged to Count Slaski, fond of African safari.

The main staircase.

One of the extraordinary barns at Orlovo; once a stable, by 1995 it was primarily a granary.

One of its horse stalls was occupied.

Housing built for the workers on the state farm established at Orlovo after 1945.

One of several extraordinary barns near Goluchow, close to Kalisz.

An adjoining structure.

Dabrovica, east of Cracow, was the estate of Professor Jan Vlodek, who died at Sachsenhausen in 1940. The estate became an agricultural school. The house was redone, but this barn had been built for eternity.