Long, long time ago, a known Polish knight called Zawisza Czarny, exhausted by the whole trip, decided to take a rest in some place. He sat down on a bench and… unfortunately, the bench broke under his weight. The knight screamed: “oh dear, be it PÓŁ ŁAWY (the half of a bench)”. And this is a story how Puławy was created – or this is what legends of this city say. How about visiting this place? It is so close to Lublin, so why not?

Puławy has great communication ways with Lublin. You can just take a train, and 30 minutes later you are in Puławy. The cost of a trip is around a few PLN, however, if you plan your trip earlier you can buy a train ticket even cheaper. You can go there with your girlfriend, friends or even alone. This is a great idea for a one-day trip.

We are in Puławy… and what then? Across picturesque squares, fountains and streets we reach to a great palace with a garden.  The whole park and garden can be visited for free. The entrance to the museum is paid. This is the Czartoryski’s family palace. In the palace itself we will find the museum of Polish historical heirlooms. Interestingly enough, the museum is the result of a great hobby of Izabela Czartoryska who cared about the history of Poland and Polish art. She wanted to pass to younger generations this great heritage. Izabela herself described hers and her husband’s life. What is intriguing, there is the Czartoryski ‘s family tree in the museum where we can see that Izabela’s husband was her own uncle. Moreover, her fortunes were quite controversial and complicated. Her mother died during the labour. Then her father married Izabela’s aunt, her mother’s sister. Unfortunately, she died 2 years later. Both of those women were the wives of a one man, both of them died of smallpox during their labours, both died in the same day of a year, both died in the same house, in the same bed…

Izabela herself got married when she was 15. She has been already after smallpox so she was very pale, without her hair and with many scars on her face. Unfortunately, this fact hadn’t helped her to be loved by her rich and educated newly married  husband who moaned about her ugliness, even though she was wealthy and powerful woman. Izabela, neither getting love  nor tenderness during her childhood and marriage life was seeking for it in arms of numerous of lovers. She was a mother of 7 children, however, only one of them was the result of her marriage. The rest of 5 children were accepted by her husband, but they were the effect of her passionate affairs: with a king, a Russian deputy and many others. The last and the youngest daughter of Izabela was a big secret. Izabela told the truth about it only when her son fell in love with this daughter – his sister.  This daughter was impossible to be accepted by Izabela’s husband just because they were far away from each other for a long time. That is why she didn’t want to admit that she had had one more child. Izabela was not a beauty of that times, but her phenomenon was her charm which hypnotized men around her. Many of her affairs had politics behind, just to keep an eye on the events and political situation in Poland. Her story was incredible and it is hard to write about all her history which is like an amazing fairytale that wrote life itself.

The palace is in the heart of a huge garden where we can see peacocks and a small pool. At the back of the palace, there is a wide park where you can see historical buildings, gates or walk around the park by avenues or ride a bike across the river. Here you can forget about your daily life.

You can say that the palace with its gardens are as great as gardens in Vienna. Lublin and the nearby places are extremely beautiful so we recommend discovering them. However, if this article was not enough… check the trailer of the city from the Tourictic Service of the City of Puławy http://turystyka.pulawy.eu/video/wspolczesne-pulawy,1089. Have a good trip because from Lublin it is only one trip away.