Lublin is the biggest city in Eastern Poland. It has its own magic and unique beauty. But it is not the only city in that part of the country. In this article I want to write about four old towns near Lublin that you should visit.

So, let’s start our virtual journey from Kazimierz Dolny – the town of Love.

It is a favorite town of tourists, artists and performers. There are a lot of open-air art events, folk festivals and fairs every year. This town is located on the Vistula River. This old town is proud of its ancient Renaissance buildings, ornate houses of prominent artists, majestic church and ruins of an old castle on a high hill. This town has only 2,000 inhabitants, but nearly a million tourists come here per a year. Kazimierz Dolny is an art center in Poland. Many painters come to this small town to paint and sell their work. Galleries can be found in almost every street, offering for sale sculptures, stained-glass, folk art, and fine art. One day is more that enough to see this beautiful town. When you walk along the old streets you can smell the history, touch it and feel it. It is perfect place for unusual and romantic date. I think it is very romantic to have a slow walk with your boyfriend or a girlfriend along the Vistula River bank.

Another polish city that will continue our virtual trip is Zamość – the ideal city.

Zamość is a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe, consistently designed and built in accordance with the Italian theories of the “ideal town,” on the basis of a plan which was the result of perfect cooperation between the open-minded founder, Jan Zamoyski, and the outstanding architect, Bernardo Morando. Speaking about Zamość, guides often say that those Renaissance houses make the city look like an expensive box of candies. They emphasizes another peculiarity of the ideal city, it is built on the principle of a pentagon. This idea that was conceived by architects is supported by modern methods, for example, there are outdoor sculpture in the form of a ball, that is ideal and perfect in its geometrical shapes. This modern rationalism provided by architects is also supported in the location of restaurants and other public establishments of the city that made Zamość very convenient not only for inhabitants, but also for the guests. In the historical past Zamość is also famous by its fortification, this city was never conquered by the enemy. Part of the fortress survived to the present times. Nowadays there are many performances and concerts, as well as there is a functioning market, where local traders sell their goods, mainly clothes. This ideal city has 70 thousand inhabitants. The mayor of this city, Mr. Zamoyski, who is a descendant of the founder of Zamość, was elected for the third time. Visit this beautiful ideal city and get new unforgettable impressions of Poland.

The third city in our virtual tour is Chełm. Here you can often see many scientists, young people who are interested in the Ukrainian-Polish history and a lot of tourists.

Chełm was founded by the Ukrainian King Danylo Galician. The first President of Ukraine Mykhailo Hrushevsky was born here. For centuries Chełm was famous for miracles of icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is stored in the museum of Lutsk now. There is Chełm Orthodox Church, which is visited by 120 families who have Ukrainian origins. But Chełm is not only famous by its historical churches, but also by its unique dungeon in Cretaceous basement. It is a labyrinth under the old town, which length is for several hundred kilometers. Long time ago there was a place of producing chalk, now it is a place of entertainment for tourists. There are many myths and legends about the cave. There are different legends about the treasure, hidden in the underground tunnels. People say that you can even meet the spirit of Belyuha, the guardian of those treasures. So, visit Chełm’s labyrinth if you aren’t afraid of ghosts.

Our last destination is village Kozłówka. It is famous by its luxury magnate residence, one of the best in Poland, which was built in the XVIII century by Bielinski family. They sold the palace to Alexander Augustus Zamoysky in 1799. Nowadays the family coat of arms of the Zamoyski is on the gates of residence.

Now the palace is open for the visitors. Curious tourists have opportunity to see almost every corner and every single room of the palace. Guests can see luxury chambers, nice bedrooms with big beautiful beds and other furniture, amazing dancing halls. Visitors can watch exhibition of ancient weapons. Every single subject of interior can tell visitors about the hosts. In every picture, sculpture, in every piece of furniture you may feel great desire for beauty. You can see very delicate artistic taste of the owners and their love for beauty.

Palace in Kozłówka is visited by crowds of tourists who want to see the lifestyle of Polish magnates. The side house is the museum of socialist realism now. Useless portraits of prominent communist figures, objects of “art” of the socialist period, such as paintings, sculptures, and other communist’s artifacts had been brought here from all over Poland. Well, this is also part of the story and those pieces of communist times have the right to exist.

It’s great that Poles were able to save this palace in its original form. Everything starting from the environment and ending with chandeliers is in its real shape. The collection of Chinese porcelain, animal skins and horns, and many others things in the palace still have energy of their owners. They still remember their touches.

So, I hope that this article will inspire you to visit those beautiful and historical towns. I think they can tell you about Poland much more then big modern cities.

Irina Ilyashevych