On the east bank of the Vistula River shines the most valuable and most beautiful of former magnate residences – the Castle in Baranów Sandomierski. This impressive product of renaissance architecture is one of the most well-preserved in Europe.

The Castle was erected at the end of the 16th century in the place of a medieval fortified knightly manor. In the 15th century the Baranowski manor belonged to the noble Baranowski family. At the turn of the 16th century, the family Górków from Greater Poland became the owner of Baranów. In 1569, Stanisław Górka sold the Baranowski property to Rafał Leszczyński. The current form of the Castle is an impressive testimony to the refined style of the wealthy Leszczyński family. With its magnificent architecture modeled after the Royal Wawel Castle, “Little Wawel” was most probably designed by the Italian architect and sculptor Santi Gucci. The last Castle owner from the Leszczyński family was Rafał X, whose son Stanisław Leszczyński was the king of Poland.

The Castle in Baranów Sandomierski transferred hands amongst families: Wiśniowiecki, Sanguszek, Lubomirski, Małachowski, Potocki and Krasicki families became owners, successively. In 1867 the Baranowski property was auctioned off to Feliks Dolański. Then Stanisław Dolański inherited the Castle, which he determined to restore after its destruction in a fire of 1898. Under the direction of the Cracovian architect Tadeusz Stryjeński, changes were made in the room layout. At this time among other changes, the secession Chapel was located in the ground floor corner chamber. The Chapel was decorated with the impressive stained-glass windows of  Józef Mehoffer as well as an altar with the exceptional painting by Jacek Malczewski “Immaculate Mother of God”. The Castle remained in the hands of the Dolański family until the Second World War.

After the destruction the structure underwent during the Second World War, the Castle was rebuilt and restored during the years 1959-1969 under the direction of Professor Alfred Majewski. Subsequently the building was transferred to the Sulfur Mine and Companies “Siarkopol” in Tarnobrzeg.

Erected by the Leszczyński family, the unique Castle in Baranów Sandomierski is a three-storey building with a rectangular footprint. At its corners stand four round towers, and a rectangular tower protrudes from the center of the front facade. Three residential sections, on the north, east and west sides of the Castle, as well as a screen wall on the south, embrace the internal courtyard surrounded by beautiful two-storey cloisters. The interior of the Castle is decorated by Giovanni Battista Falconi and Tylman van Gameren.

Since 1997 the owner of the Castle and Park Complex is the Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu S.A. in Warsaw.