Information

Build in 1627-1644 by Krzysztof Ossoliński, it was never completely finished. It is a spacious palace in Italian style, type palazzo in fortezza. Responsible for elaboration of designs and supervision of the palace construction was Wawrzyniec Senes. On the north side formerly adjoined beautiful gardens in Italian style.
The history of the castle construction and its period of splendor are still not fully mastered. This is the reason why there exist so many legends around the castle. One of them tells about the application of numerology with relation to the calendar: as many windows as days of the year, as many rooms as weeks, as many ballrooms as months and as many corner turrets as quarters. The lack of preserved construction designs and etchings dating before the redevelopment in XVIII century makes the actual restoration of the castle image as in mid-XVII century impossible.
Its founder had little time to enjoy the castle. Krzysztof Ossoliński died suddenly one year after the construction works were finished. He left a very indebted property, which was inherited by his son Krzysztof Baldwin Ossoliński. After the dead of Krzysztof Baldwin Ossoliński (1649), the palace was inherited by the related Kalinowski Family. During the Swedish Deluge, the palace was robbed out (1655). It was resided until 1770, when it was destroyed by the Russian army during the military actions against the Bar Confederation army.
Nowadays, the palace has a status of permanent ruins. Within the former monument classification, it was classified as “class 0 monument”. Although the building is a ruin, it’s still worth visiting due to its considerable preservation level. In contains spacious fortifications: bastions, castle moat, defense wall residues and bridges.
The name of the castle evolved in time: The cross (krzyż) was a symbol of faith and politics of the governor (voivode), the ax (topór) was the coat of arms of the Ossoliński Family. Both symbols are located above the entrance gate to the palace. The builder itself called the palace Krzysztofory, which is probably derived from the etymology of his name (gr. Christophoros – see Krzysztof). The landlord territory Iwaniska, in which Ujazd is located, has been acquired by the Ossoliński Family from Ligęza Family in the beginning of the XVII century.