Attractions and Places To See around Domaniewice - Top 20

the park is open on weekends

After a wonderful bike ride, I reached the church in Pszczonów – a truly historic site, as it was the setting for the adaptation of Reymont's novel "Chłopi" (The Peasants). The interior of this church, rich in history – dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries, with numerous renovations and Baroque polychrome – gained a new dimension thanks to the film adaptation. In the 1972 film adaptation, directed by Jan Rybkowski, alongside excellent actors – Władysław Hańcza (Maciej Boryna), Ignacy Gogolewski (Antek Boryna), Emilia Krakowska (Jagna), Krystyna Królówna (Hanka) – residents of Lipce Reymontowskie, Pszczonów, and Słupia also appeared as extras. They brought costumes, props, interiors, and the dialect of bygone times – making the adaptation incredibly authentic and vivid. This is a story truly worth seeing, especially since "The Peasants" is not only one of the greatest Polish novels but also a work by Nobel laureate Reymont – full of rich literary and social context and a profound portrayal of the countryside. The film adaptation captures its spirit and the vibrant folk culture; it is a true tribute to national tradition and the life of the ancient countryside.

It was built in the 12th century and is the oldest in the city. The current Baroque church dates back to the 17th century and was consecrated on October 14, 1668. Since September 25, 1433, the parish church has been a collegiate church. On March 25, 1992, by the papal bull Totus Tuus Poloniae Populus, the collegiate church was raised to the dignity of a cathedral. During his 7th pilgrimage to his homeland, visiting Łowicz, Pope John Paul II, on June 14, 1999, gave it the title of minor basilica. The church is located in the city center at the Old Market Square. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parafia_Wniebowzi%C4%99cia_Naj%C5%9Bwi%C4%99tszej_Maryi_Panny_w_%C5%81owiczu

In the northern part there is the so-called Primate's Gate from the mid-17th century with the Jastrzębiec coat of arms designed by Tomasz Poncino and the former dean's office, currently the seat of the Bishop of Łowicz. The western frontage is built up with a complex of canonries from the 16th-18th centuries with numerous foundation plaques. In the southern part there is a Renaissance tenement house of the Cebrowski family, their distinguished representative was Andrzej Kazimierz Cebrowski, a pharmacist, doctor, author of the first chronicle of the city "Annales Civitatis Loviciae". On the side of the courtyard at ul. Aptekarska there are Renaissance cloisters. For several centuries, the market square served a commercial function - since the Middle Ages, markets were held there - weekly and annual famous fairs. Once in the middle of the market square there was a Gothic, brick town hall, demolished around 1830. The market square is also a place of historical events. On the market square, on 24-25 October 1790, Tadeusz Kościuszko inspected the 9th Crown Infantry Regiment, and on 18 December 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte stopped in one of the tenement houses on his way to Warsaw after his victory at Jena and Auerstadt. There are two monuments on the market square: to the Sons of the Łowicz Region from 1927 and to Pope John Paul II unveiled in 2000.

On the site of the current Cathedral Basilica, a wooden church was probably built in the 12th century. In the 14th century, it was replaced by a single-nave brick church with elements of bog iron ore. The remains of the Gothic temple were discovered during archaeological research in 2015. The expansion to the form of a three-nave basilica took place in the second half of the 17th century, carried out by the Poncino brothers. The founder of the expansion, carried out "at a more magnificent expense than the king's", was Primate Maciej Łubieński. Over the centuries, distinguished European artists worked at the Łowicz collegiate church, including Hieronim Canavesi, Jan Michałowicz from Urzędów, Giovanni Battista Falconi, Tylman from Gameren, Konstanty Tencalla, Karol Bay, Efraim Szreger, Szymon Bogumił Zug, Jakub Fontanna, Jan Jerzy Plersch, Adam Swach. In 1992, the church became a Cathedral, and in 1999 it gained the rank of Basilica. In 2012, the Łowicz church was entered on the list of historical monuments.

In the mid-15th century, a fortified castle was probably built in Sobota on Tomasz's initiative. Based on it, in the mid-16th century, a brick defensive manor house was built, the shape of which blurred the original character of the stronghold. The founder of the new complex was one of two brothers: Tomasz or Brycjusz Sobocki. The first of them, the chamberlain of Łęczyca from 1542 and castellan of Gostyń from 1546, built a parish church in Sobota, the second in turn financed the Renaissance tombstones in it. It is not known what happened to the Sobota manor house - 150 years later it was referred to as a brick treasury, no longer serving residential purposes. The neo-Gothic palace was built on the foundations of the old building. The current manor house in Sobota was built on the initiative of August Zawisza in the second half of the 19th century. It is a single-storey building built of brick in the form of a castle. Above the main entrance there is an additional floor, which is crowned with a neo-Gothic battlement. An octagonal tower, also crowned with battlements, was added to the north. The building is situated on a small elevation, which is surrounded by a moat. The manor is located in a park, in which there are also farm and residential buildings. In 1890, the estate was acquired by Artur Stokowski and his wife. On their initiative, the palace was expanded in the interwar period. The next owners of Sobota were Wiktor and Bogna Przegaliński, who bought it in 1927 with the intention of opening a breeding farm for Anglo-Arabian horses there. After the end of World War II, the estate was divided into parcels. It was divided between the State Agricultural Farm and the State Stud Farm in Walewice. The palace was transformed into a multi-family residential building. During archaeological and architectural research conducted in 1985, the remains of a hexagonal tower measuring 4.5 m on a side, supported by corner buttresses in a Gothic brick layout, were identified in the walls of the neo-Gothic manor house. This is the only known remnant of the Gothic castle. The building is currently abandoned.

Stanisław Klicki was a cavalryman, a division general of the Kingdom of Poland, a participant in the fight for independence and the commander of the staff in Łowicz. The palace was built on his orders, and he wanted it to become a place where various military memorabilia could be collected.

The parish in Pszczonów was probably established at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, certainly before 1366. From the records of the Gniezno Chapter we learn that the metropolitan archbishop of Gniezno, Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki, having established the wójt in Pszczonów and having sold it in 1366 to a certain Tomasz, obliged him to pay the local priest a tithe according to the guidelines. In the 15th century, the metropolitan archbishop of Gniezno, Jakub of Sienna, the primate of Poland (1474-1480), built a second church, dedicated to All Saints and St. Dorothy, virgin and martyr. The church in Pszczonów is known from the film adaptation of Reymont's "Chłopi" - it was there that Maciej Boryna and Jagna were married.