Wilanów

The history of the nearby Powsina is inextricably linked with the history of Vilyanov. The first mention of Powsinie appeared in the 13th century as a settlement that belonged to Bogusz Mechlavice from the Doliv family, the voivode of Łęczyc. In 1258, he bequeathed the property to the Włocławek Cathedral, which was approved by Prince Siemowit I of Mazowiecki and Czerski. In 1283, Bishop Albert of Kujawski transferred the property to Castellan Wisko Mikołaj of the Tsiolkov family in exchange for Száwłowice in the deanery of Gniewków.

 

Wilanow was one of the oldest settlements in the vicinity of Warsaw. Until the second half of the 17th century, the name Milanów was used. Until 1338, the village of Milanowo belonged to the Benedictine abbey in Płock. In 1338 it became the property of Troiden, Duke of Czersky and Sochaczewski. The successive owners of Milanov are Milanovski, Leszczynski and Krzycki.

 

In 1398, Elzbieta Tsiolkova, widow of Andrzej, castellan of Czerski, founded the wooden church of St. Apostle Andrew and St. Elzbieta. The descendants of the Tsioleks adopted the nickname Povsinsky and owned the village until 1677. They then sold it to Jan Sobieski, who included it in the Wilanów estate.

 

In 1580, the noble village of Milanowo was located in the Warsaw district of the Warsaw land of the Masovian Voivodeship. There was also a settlement Olęderskie on the territory of Wilanowa.

 

The original name was Milanowo or Milanów. It appears several times in medieval records as: Mylynow (1350), Milonowo (1377), Milonów (1422), Milonowo (1426). The name comes from the personal name Milon or Milan, probably derived from compound names such as Miloslav, Milobrat. The current form was probably created by the Polonization of the Latinized name of the Villa Nova residence after it was built in the 17th century.

 

In 1677, the estate in Milanowie was bought for Jan III Sobieski by the Russian voivode and grand treasurer Marek Maczynski. The king wanted a place worthy of a European ruler: a beautifully located Italian villa, in accordance with ancient traditions, surrounded by a garden and equipped with a correspondingly developed farm. He called this project Villa Nova. This is how the name of today's district of Warsaw was created: Wilanów.

 

In the 1720s, Powsin and its surroundings were bought by Elzbieta Elena Senyavskaya. In 1725 she founded the church of St. st. Elizabeth, standing in the center of Powsina. The name Milanów was used until the second half of the 17th century.

 

In 1730–1733 Wilanów leased August II of Mokna. Subsequently, the Wilanów estate passed into the hands of the Czartoryski, Lubomirski and Potocki. In the immediate vicinity of the wilanowskiej residence is the church of St. Anna, founded by Prince August Czartoryski in 1772.

 

At the end of the 18th century, the pastor of the church of St. Elzbiety was Jan Pavel Voronich. He was the initiator of the creation of a parochial school and a parish charitable center in 1810. After the fall of the January Uprising (1863-1864), powsińskie estates received voting rights and became part of the Wilanów commune.

 

In 1892, according to the will of Alexandra, nee Potocka, the estate passed to Count Xavier Branitsky. Wilanów belonged to the Branicki family from 1892 until the end of World War II.

 

During the German occupation in Wilanowie, the Germans organized two forced labor camps for the Jewish population and Soviet prisoners of war - a branch of the camp in Beniaminowie.

 

In 1945, the entire palace and park complex of Wilanowa became the property of the state, becoming a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw, which since 1995 has been an independent institution as the Museum of the Palace of King Jan III in Wilanowie (until September 2013 under the name Muzeum Pałac w Wilanowie) .

 

In 1951 Wilanów (including Powsin) was incorporated into Warsaw.

 

In 1994-2002, Warsaw-Wilanow (Warszawa-Wilanów) was an urban commune that existed in the Warsaw metropolitan voivodeship and the Masovian voivodeship. The location of the commune was in the Warsaw district of Wilanow.

 

The commune of Warsaw-Wilanow (Warszawa-Wilanów) was founded on June 19, 1994 in the Warsaw Voivodeship.

 

In connection with the administrative reform of Poland, which entered into force on January 1, 1999, the gmina became part of the Warsaw poviat in the newly created Mazovian Governorate.

 

The commune of Warsaw-Wilanow (Warszawa-Wilanów) was abolished on October 27, 2002 (together with the entire Warsaw poviat) in connection with the abolition of the division of Warsaw into communes. A single Warsaw city commune was again created.

 

 

 

Historical monuments, sights and interesting places in the Warsaw district Wilanow:

 

Palace in Wilanow

Church of St. Anna (Kościół św. Anny)

Church of St. Elisabeth (Kościół św. Elżbiety)

Poster Museum (Muzeum Plakatu)

Mausoleum Stanisława Kostki i Aleksandry Potockich z 1836

Mosque on Wernicha Street (Meczet przy ulicy Wiertniczej)

Morysinsky Nature Reserve (Rezerwat przyro Morysin)

Zawadowskie Islands - islands on the Vistula River and fragments of the coast

Palace and park complex in Natolin

Guchin Gaj

 

 

 

Palace in Wilanow (Pałac w Wilanowie):

 

The most famous monument in Wilanowie, one of the most interesting baroque buildings in Europe. Built in 1677–1696 for King Jan III Sobieski, designed by Augustin Locci and enlarged by successive owners of Wilanowa.

 

Initially, it was a typical country aristocratic residence in the form of a Polish manor with alcoves. In its form of 1696, it is a characteristic type of country residence in the Baroque style. Lateral wings were added in 1720-1728 (project author: Giovanni Spazzio, chief architect of Elzbieta Seniavska, nee Lubomirska).

 

After the death of Sobieski in 1696, the palace was owned by his sons, and then, from 1720, it was the residence of famous magnate families: Senyavsky, Czartorysky, Lubomirsky, Potocki and Branicki. In 1730-1733 the palace was the residence of King Augustus II the Strong. Each of the families made changes in the interiors of the palace, in the garden and in the immediate environment in accordance with the current fashion and needs.

 

The architecture of the palace is the result of combining European art with the old Polish building tradition. The painting and sculptural decoration of the facade and palace interiors glorify the Sobieski family and the military successes of the king.

 

The stucco and pictorial decoration of the palace is the work of such artists as Jozef Shimon Bellotti, Jerzy Semiginovsky-Eleuther, Michelangelo Palloni, Claude Callot, Jan Samuel Mock. The decorations on the front panels are made by Francesco Fumo. Regency ornament (1720s and 1730s) by Pietro Innocente Comperetti.

 

In 1805, on the initiative of the then owner Stanisław Kostka Potocki, one of the first public museums in Poland was founded in part of the palace. In addition to presenting rich collections of European and Far Eastern art, the central part of the palace is dedicated to the memory of Jan III and the great national past.

 

The palace, together with the surrounding park and buildings that survived the times of divisions, wars and occupation, has retained its historical and artistic value. It is one of the most important monuments of Polish national culture.

 

The palace was handed over to the state after the war. After careful work on conservation and revaluation, as well as the restoration of a significant part of the collections taken out by the Germans, in 1962 it was opened to the public.

 

Since 1995, the palace and the palace and park complex have been administered by the Muzeum Pałac w Wilanowie.

 

In addition to visiting the magnificent palace-museum, you can walk through the gardens on its territory. In summer, flowers bloom here, many hedges, roses. Magnolias and numerous shrubs bloom in spring. In winter, the garden transforms into the Royal Garden of Light.

 

 

 

 

Church of St. Anna (Kościół św. Anny)

Today's church of St. Anna became the seat of a parish already in the 13th century, which over the next centuries covered vast territories, reaching even the village of Wiązowna across the Vistula. There was a ford across the Vistula, probably maintained by the Benedictines.

 

Already in the 14th century, the first wooden church of St. Leonard, and then in the 16th century - a wooden, late Gothic church with a separate belfry.

 

Almost two centuries later, in 1772, the wooden parish church gave way to the stone church of St. Anna. The church was built at the expense of the then owner of Wilanowa, Prince August Adam Czartoryski (designed by architect Jan Kotelnicki). A pastor's house was built next to the church.

 

The granddaughter of Prince Adam Czartoryski, Alexandra Potocka, nee Lubomirska, in 1799-1831 decorated the Wilanowski church with religious art objects. They were brought here from Kmit's chapel in the Lubomirski princes' castle in Wiśniczu. One of the most valuable and, at the same time, the most important is the painting “The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” (painted by an Italian painter of the 17th century). This image was placed in the retablo of the main altar.

 

On the initiative of Alexandra Pototskaya (in 1816), a grave cemetery was arranged far from the church. In the middle of the cemetery, a neo-Gothic chapel-mausoleum was erected between 1823 and 1826 (designed by Christian Piotr Aigner).

 

The church owes its present appearance to the reconstruction carried out by Henrik and Leonard Marconi. In 1857-1870, according to their design, Alexandra and August Potocki rebuilt and expanded the existing church. The church received the neo-Renaissance form and is a magnificent temple next to the Wilanow residence of King Jan III Sobieski. A presbytery and two chapels were added to the main nave: the Most Holy Theotokos and St. Anna. A dome with a transept was also erected. The image of Our Lady of Grace (the work of Leopold Kuperweiser) was placed in the Potocki Chapel. There are also sarcophagi and epitaphs of the owners of Vilanova, whose graves are in the crypt - under the chapel. The sculptures on the facade are the work of Syrevich.

 

The territory of the church cemetery was surrounded by a brick fence with a wreath of chapels made of terracotta, in memory of the Passion Stations - an idea borrowed by Marconi from one of the churches of Messina. The stations surrounding the church were built between 1857-1863.

 

The extension was completed and the church was consecrated in 1870.

 

During the First World War, the church and its surroundings were destroyed. In 1916, the Prussian army removed the cladding of the temple - a beautiful chased copper sheet was torn off. The dome of the church was an excellent observatory for Russian and Prussian troops throughout the Vistula valley. The church was subjected to artillery fire, especially from the side of the Ursynov slope.

 

World War II brought new destruction. In September 1939, several cannon shells hit the church. The church was again plundered, and the surroundings were devastated (the trophy of King Jan III, the historical "Vezyr tent" burned down). During the Warsaw Uprising (1944), the church was turned by the Germans into a room (camp) for internees, especially from among the intelligentsia of the capital and its environs.

 

The temple was desecrated by German soldiers - the tabernacle was broken, the Holy Eucharist was scattered, liturgical vessels were plundered. The houses of the priests were destroyed. However, two bells from 1723 and 1777 have been preserved, which were hidden in the domes of the church from looting by the Wilanows - both during the First World War (in 1916) and from the Germans in 1940. Both bells are currently suspended in the newly built Belfry of the Third Millennium.

 

Until 1979, the temple, the parish house, and so on were mothballed. "organist" - the oldest brick building in Wilanow. Since 1980, thorough restoration work began in the church and parish buildings. The temple and all buildings were covered with copper sheet. The parish house was completed, a new catechism house, school buildings and a collegiate house were built. The temple and church buildings were decorated with paintings and jewelry.

 

October 16, 1998 the church of St. Anna in Wilanow was elevated to the rank of the Cathedral Church of the Warsaw Archdiocese.

 

 

 

 

Church of St. Elzbiety (Kościół św. Elżbiety)

Church of St. Elzbiety - parish church and, at the same time, the Sanctuary of the Holy Mother of God in Powsinie.

 

History of the church of St. The Elzbiet in Powsinie begins in the 14th century. In 1398, Elzbieta Czolkova, widow of Andrzej Ciolk, castellan of Czersky, on the advice of her sons - Vygand, Andrzej, Stanislav and Klemens, founded the wooden church of St. Apostle Andrew and St. Elzbieta. The official act of approval of the parish in Powsinie was issued 12 years later.

 

In 1410, Poznań Bishop Wojciech (Albert) separated the villages of Powsino, Jeziorna and Lisy from the wilanowskiej parish, creating a separate unit from it and attaching them to the new church in Powsin.

 

The wooden temple was most likely destroyed during the Swedish flood. The second one, built in its place, was also wooden, apparently, was in poor condition and was not completed. Only in 1725, the foundation of Elzbieta Sieniawska, nee Lubomirska, then the owner of the Wilanów estate, including Powsina, built a magnificent stone church. Its designer was the outstanding Baroque architect Józef Fontana. This eighteenth-century building is the core of today's church, as the church designed by Fontana was single-nave and much shorter than today.

 

In 1803-1815, Fr. Jan Pavel Voronich, later Primate of the Kingdom of Poland.

 

In 1889, the church, which over the years had become too small for the growing parish, was expanded thanks to the efforts of Countess Alexandra Potocka, who provided a significant part of the funds and thanks to donations from parishioners. Side aisles, a porch and two towers were added.

 

Another reconstruction was made in 1921 according to the project of the architect Józef Dziekonski. It was then that the church acquired its present form, all three naves were expanded from the side of the porch, two towers of the 19th century were removed and a separate belfry was erected.

 

For more than 300 years, the main altar has housed the image of the Passionate Mother of God, known as Powsińską, famous for her graces and revered by believers.

 

 

 

 

Poster Museum (Muzeum Plakatu):

The Poster Museum is located in the palace and garden complex in Wilanowie on the site of the former palace arena, the memory of which is the facade of the museum building. It was opened in 1968 and is a branch of the National Museum. It was the first museum of its kind in the world.

 

Its collection includes about 54,000 works, including the Polish School of Poster Collection, collections of Polish, American and European posters from the late 19th century to the present day, works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Stasys Eidrigevičius.

 

 

 

 

Mausoleum Stanisława Kostki and Aleksandry Potockich z 1836:

The Potocki Mausoleum (Mauzoleum Potockich) in Wilanowie, a symbolic gravestone erected for Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Alexandra Potocki by their son Alexander near the Wilanow Palace.

 

The mausoleum of Stanislav and Alexandra Potocki is one of the most valuable monuments of the Wilanów Palace. A tombstone without burial was erected by Alexander Potocki to his parents and owners of Wilanowa in the early 19th century. Stanislav Kostka was an aesthete, a lover of art, especially Greek art, its researcher and collector. He understood medals and coins, architecture, collected paintings and graphics, was fond of the history of literature.

 

Contemporaries appreciated his patriotism and commitment to social activities, knowledge and willingness to share his achievements, perseverance in the dissemination of education, including revolutionary thinking about raising girls. In 1805, an aristocrat and freemason opened the Wilanowa collection to the public. Stanislav Kostka Potocki was also a writer.

 

Alexandra Pototskaya, nee Lubomirskaya, also took care of the development of art and education, she was also a freemason (freemason). Stanisław Kostka appreciated and admired his wife's knowledge of art history and theory, as well as her ability to identify works.

 

Alexander Pototsky ordered a mausoleum for his parents, which was supposed to emphasize their status and merits. This mausoleum was built in 1836 by order of the new owner of the Wilanów estate, Henryk Makroni. The sculptures in this building were made in 1834-1836 by Yakub Tatarkevich and Konstantin Hegel (the creator of the sculpture of the Mermaid from the Old Town) from Szydłowiec sandstone.

 

The mausoleum consists of a neo-Gothic canopy on a wide pedestal, at the corners of which are four lions holding shields with the coats of arms of Pilava Potocki and the Lubomirskaya squad. The figures of the spouses are depicted on the sarcophagus placed under the canopy. Its sides are decorated with bas-reliefs - these are the geniuses of death and the personification of the interests and virtues of the dead.

 

On the pedestal there are tablets with inscriptions dedicated to Stanislav (on the western side) and Alexandra (on the eastern side).

 

The mausoleum is symbolic. When Stanisław Kostka Potocki died in 1821, he was buried in the basement of the St. Anna. The coffin was then moved to a nearby cemetery, where it was placed in a neo-Gothic chapel designed by Stanisław's favorite architect, Christian Piotr Aigner. However, this was not Potocki's last resting place. After 40 years, the coffin again found its place in the church of St. Anna, where he remains to this day.

 

In 1965, the mausoleum was included in the register of architectural monuments. During the summer season, the building is beautifully illuminated as part of the Wilanowski Garden of Light.

 

Mosque on Vernicha Street 103 (Meczet przy ulicy Wiertniczej):

The mosque in Warsaw is not a typical Muslim prayer house, but a villa rebuilt in 1993. Its premises also house Islamic cultural institutions and offices of the Muslim Religious Community in Warsaw. The mosque does not have a minaret.

 

The idea of building a mosque in Warsaw existed even before the outbreak of World War II. The initiators of the construction of the mosque were the Polish Tatars. The building had to have at least one minaret, a dome and in front of the entrance the so-called haram with water, that is, a fountain or spring. The main prayer hall was to accommodate 350 people. A gallery for 100 women was also planned. The winning project of Stanisław Kolenda and Tadeusz Miazek in 1936 provided for the construction of a building with an onion dome surrounded by four 20-meter minarets.

 

This mosque is the main prayer building of the Warsaw Muslims. Every week, Polish Tatars, refugees from Chechnya and immigrants from the Middle East travel by bus to Wilanów for Friday prayers. The mosque is not able to accommodate everyone.

 

Morysinsky Nature Reserve (Rezerwat przyrody Morysin):

The Morysyn Nature Reserve (Rezerwat przyrody Morysin) is a landscape nature reserve established in 1996, located in Warsaw in the Wilanów district. It is located between the Wilanowskie Lake, the Wilanówka River and the Sobieski Canal in the Morysin area.

 

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, Morysin was completely covered with forest, which, due to its natural boundaries, served as a reserve. At the beginning of the 19th century, during the reign of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the then owner of Wilanowa, its northern part was turned into a romantic park and named Morysin after Potocki's grandson Maurycy, abbreviated as Morys.

 

In 1811, a palace with a rotunda was erected in the park, modeled on the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, and in 1825 an oracle, i.e. figure of a pagan deity between two columns. This park was connected with the Wilanowski Palace Complex thanks to the waters of the lake and the Sobieski Canal. Inside the park there were also channels through which boats approached the foot of the rotunda palace.

 

In the mid-nineteenth century, a brick caretaker's house and a wooden gamekeeper's house were built in the park, and the park was rebuilt to create flowerbeds that were fashionable at that time. In 1846, neo-Gothic brick gates were built in the open space to the south of the park (on the Morysinsky fields), which closed the alley lined with trees, located along the axis of the Wilanowski Palace.

 

The park served as a place of rest and leisure for the owners of the palace and their guests until 1939, when its ruin began. After 1945, the park was included in the National Museum in Warsaw, and since 1995 it has belonged to the Wilanow Palace Museum. In 1973, the park was included in the register of monuments of the Warsaw Voivodeship, in 1994, by decree of the President of the Republic of Poland, it was recognized as part of Warsaw - a historical monument. This area is currently inaccessible.

 

The area of the reserve (including the park, the northern bay of Lake Wilanowski and the island on the lake) is 53.46 ha.

 

The purpose of creating the reserve is to protect the area of the Vistula valley with tugai and alder forests with numerous specimens of monumental trees and rich flora and fauna.

 

 

 

 

Zawadowskie Islands - islands on the Vistula River and fragments of the coast (Wyspy Zawadowskie - wyspy na Wiśle i fragmenty wybrzeża):

 

The Wyspy Zawadowskie Nature Reserve (Wyspy Zawadowskie) is a natural fauna reserve, established in 1998, located in the southern part of Warsaw (in the districts of Wilanów and Wawer), in the municipality of Konstancin-Jeziorna and in the city of Józefów in the Masovian Voivodeship. It covers an area of 530.28 ha and includes islands and sandbanks, as well as the flowing waters of the Vistula. In the south, it borders on the Wyspy Świderskie nature reserve.

 

The purpose of the reserve was to protect aquatic ecosystems in the middle channel of the Vistula of a natural or close to natural nature. It is a nesting and feeding place for rare bird species and a refuge for animals associated with the aquatic environment. In addition, this area is of great landscape importance.

 

The reserve is included in the national ecological network Econet-Polska.

 

 

 

 

Palace and park complex in Natolin:

 

In Wilanów, on the highest and middle terrace of the Vistula valley, there is a palace and garden complex in Natolinie. Palace and park complex in Natolin (Natolin Park) - a park located in Warsaw on the street. Nowoursynowskiej in the Wilanow area. The park is closed to the public except for organized guided walks.

 

The history of the palace and park complex in Natolin begins during the reign of Jan III Sobieski. At the end of the 17th century, Jan III Sobieski founded the Royal Zoo in the Natolina area, adjacent to the residence in Wilanow. Here he hunted. In 1730, the owners of the estate, Maria and August Czartoryski, leased it for life to the heir to the Polish throne, August II the Strong, who turned the zoo into a place for breeding and hunting pheasants, hence the name of the area - Bażantarnia, which was valid until the beginning of the 19th century.

 

King Augustus II of Saxony redesigned the zoo according to French baroque premises, modeled on the zoo at Versailles. In 1733 the property returned to the owners. In 1780, Prince August Czartoryski began the construction of the residence, erecting a classicist palace with a semi-open salon with columns designed by Szymon Bogumil Zug. After the death of Augustus, the business was continued by his daughter Elzbieta Lubomirska.

 

In 1799, the palace became the property of Lubomirska's daughter Alexandra and her husband Stanisław Kostka Potocki.

 

After the wedding of their son Alexander with Anna Tyshkevichovna, the estate in Bażantarni in 1805 was appointed as the summer residence of the bride and groom.

 

In 1807, the former name of the village Bażanteria was changed to Natolin in honor of their daughter Natalia Potocka, who was born in the same year. In 1808 the palace was rebuilt according to the design of Peter Aigner. The architect also added an outbuilding, caretakers' houses and a carriage house with a stable. The building has a rounded central hall, which occupies two floors and is covered by a dome supported by six columns.

 

In 1834–1838 Henryk Marconi carried out another reconstruction. He designed a monument-sarcophagus to Natalya Pototskaya, the sculptor was Ludwik Kaufmann. A Doric temple, a Moorish gate and bridge, and a Roman aqueduct were built in the park. From 1892, after the death of Alexandra Potocka (Avgustova), the widow of the grandson of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, until 1945 the palace belonged to the Branicki family.

 

During the Warsaw Uprising and after its fall, the German occupying forces deliberately devastated and plundered the most valuable buildings and structures of Natolin. Natolin Historical Park was plowed over with ditches, destroying much of its historic old trees.

 

In 1945, Natolin was nationalized and placed under the care of the National Museum in Warsaw. Soon it became the residence of the President of the Republic of Poland, and then the representative building of the Chancellery of the Council of Ministers. General restoration work carried out by the museum eliminated the consequences of many years of desolation and most of the war damage, and in the Open Salon, the plafond of Vincenz Brenna, painted over in the 19th century, was opened and preserved. However, ten years later, Natolin again began to undergo a process of rapidly progressive degradation.

 

A serious threat to Natolina's unique artistic, historical and landscape values was stopped in the early 1990s by the decision to hand over the building for European education purposes. The Centrum Europejskie Natolin Foundation, which takes care of the monument, carried out work on the conservation and adaptation of the buildings of the former palace complex, using them, among other things, for the needs of the College of Europe.

 

Since 1993 Natolinie has hosted a branch of the College of Europe in Bruges. At the same time, several new buildings for teachers and students of the college, the administration, conference rooms and lecture halls were erected. The architectural form of the new buildings was in harmony with the restored historical buildings.

 

The park can only be visited during excursions organized from spring to autumn by the Natolin European Center.

 

The palace and park complex also includes the Las Natoliński nature reserve, established in 1991, with a variety of forest plants, monumental trees and interesting relief. The most valuable element of the reserve are the remains of the former broad-leaved forests, typical for the Middle Vistula valley.

 

 

 

 

Gucin Gaj:

 

Gucin Gaj was founded in 1817-1821 by Stanisław Kostka Potocki as an additional residence of Wilanów. The name comes from the name of the grandson of Stanislaw Kostka, August (Gucho) Potocki.

 

Initially, he occupied the hill next to the church in Służewie and a small area behind the pond, along the Służewieckiego stream. Potocki created this romantic residence using an existing manor complex, consisting of a small palace, a pond under a hill, and outbuildings. Some of them have been rebuilt or supplemented with new ones.

 

On a hill near the church of St. Katarzyna, a walking garden was laid out, and a picturesque orchard was laid out at the foot of the hill. In Gucine, in his free time from public works, Potocki devoted himself to rest and study. Here he spent all his days creating and finishing many works. Here, on holidays, he received his family and people close to him for a village feast.

 

Gucin was a garden with a dwelling house and a small "grove" with trees of different varieties, planted by famous people of that era. In the grove there are so-called catacombs - a romantic garden building erected at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries on the slope of the Vistula, between the church of St. Katarzyny and the village of Służew. The U-shaped underground brick corridor has a barrel vault and is about 60 m long. Niches are symmetrically located on both sides of the corridor; some of them have three rows. The entrance was in a pavilion of unknown type. During the period when this territory belonged to Stanislav Kostka Pototsky, members of the Masonic lodge probably gathered here.

 

In 1821-1830, that is, after the death of Stanislav, his wife Alexandra Pototskaya founded Guy on the pond. It was a memorial garden dedicated to the memory of Potocki and his brother Ignatius, co-author of the May 3rd Constitution. It consisted of a sarcophagus, obelisks and stones with inscriptions and trees planted by relatives and friends of both statesmen. The largest and most impressive was the sarcophagus, modeled on the ancient tomb of Scipio, built at the expense of Alexandra Potocka in 1824. An obelisk topped with a marble urn was built on this foundation.

 

From the 1830s the building was used as a utility cellar; a ventilation shaft was built near the entrance.

 

Gucin remained in the ownership of the Potocki family only until 1856. After that, it was rented out, gradually fell into decay, and was also ruined by the local population. The pavilion with the entrance was completely destroyed. The southeastern part of the corridor and most of the walls covering the niches also collapsed.

 

An attempt to save the object - the construction of the watchman's house and a new fence failed.

 

The greatest destruction occurred in 1939–1945. Then all the trees on the hill and most of the trees in the Grove were cut down.

 

During the Polish People's Republic, Przedsiębiorstwo Centrali Rybnej operated in Gaja.

 

After the war, the Gucin-Gaju area was divided between the fish center and the neighboring church of St. Katarzyna.

 

Currently, the building is difficult to access and badly damaged. In the 1990s, it was included in the register of monuments as a cemetery. This is a shelter and wintering place for bats. In 2021, as part of the activities of the Wilanów Cultural Park, an inventory of the underground corridor was carried out on behalf of the city using a laser scanner.

 

At the foot of the cliff there is a group of pedunculate oaks, which are natural monuments.