During your stay in Kalisz you cannot forget about Gołuchów situated about 15km from our town. Gołuchów Castle is a gem among places worth visiting when you are in Wielkopolska, a region in central Poland. This is a place where students from our school organize scientific meetings to acquire advanced knowledge of biology and geography.

It was built for Rafał Leszczyński in 1650. Two and a half centuries later Izabella Działyńska, the owner of the castle, had it restored in the style of the French Renaissance. She designed the castle not only as a residence but also as a museum. Izabella Działyńska founded the collection of drawings, prints, crafts, ancient art, pictures and textiles. The main attractions are the Ancient Room, the Museum Room or the Polish Room where you can admire the paintings of the Italian masters, the seventeenth century tapestries which illustrate the stories from Punic War II, the portraits of monarchs, commanders and provincial governors e.g. Stanisław Poniatowski, Michał Czartoryski or Jan Działyński. For art lovers there are collections of European decorative art.

It is believed that during misty nights you may see the ghosts of the Działyński family who not only guard the wonderful work they created, but also suffer as some of the masterpieces were stolen by the Nazi art collectors.

The castle is surrounded by the park in an English style. There are many types of rare trees and shrubs – beautiful Siberian spruces, Greek firs and red maples.

The park in Gołuchów is the largest landscape park in Poland. It covers the area of 120 h; the average age of the trees exceeds 120 years. The valley, in which the Ciemna river is, reveals two scenic ponds which are shelters for swans.

Recently , the castle repeatedly served as the setting for famous Polish films such as „Queen Bona” or „Mr Kleks’ Academy”.

This is also a place where bisons, the biggest mammals in Europe, can be seen. The size of these animals depends on their age and sex. They became extinct in the wild many years ago, however, Polish conservationists helped to save them. After World War II Poland established the world’s center of breeding bisons. Nowadays these animals are protected all over the world.

On one of the paths in Gołuchów there is a huge stone – the largest in Wielkopolska and one of the most powerful in Poland. It is 8.5m long, 6.5m wide, 3.5m high and has a circumference of 22 m. There are some legends which explain the origin of the stone and one of them says that the devil carried it there in order to destroy the places nearby. Fortunately, that vicious plan went wrong.

Gołuchów is a place worth seeing due to breathtaking views and picturesque areas where you can forget about everyday life and admire the beauty of nature.

Martyna Michalak,Ada Wojciechowska, Patrycja Woźniak, Ada Zaborowska