Dębniki Park

Dębniki Park is a park in Kraków on Praska Street, in the Dębniki district, right next to the Vistula Boulevards. It consists of two parts separated by an industrial area: the larger one lies on Praska Street, the smaller on Czarodziejska Street. At the back of the larger part stands the neo-Renaissance Lasocki Palace, a former residence from which the park originated.

Where the park came from

The land for the park was given to the city about a hundred years ago by the Lasocki family, which is why the Municipal Greenery Authority counts it among the youngest parks in Kraków. The park was designed by staff of the Institute of Landscape Architecture at Kraków University of Technology. The area is given differently: the Wikipedia entry says 4.82 ha, and the website of the Municipal Greenery Authority 6.52 ha, so it is worth treating both figures as approximate.

The Lasocki Palace

The palace at Tyniecka 18 is listed in the heritage register. In the middle of the 19th century a classicist villa with outbuildings stood here. Around 1871 Count Bronisław Lasocki bought it and joined the existing buildings into an eclectic residence with the features of a palace. The rebuilding of 1880, attributed to Maksymilian Nitsch, added storeys, a square tower with crenellation, a portico and a glazed veranda.

In the pavilion linking the palace with the tower a gallery was set up with drawings and paintings by Polish painters, among them Artur Grottger and Juliusz Kossak. In a separate room called the museum stood display cases with glass, porcelain, coins and antiquities.

Later uses of the estate

After 1910 the estate belonged to the city municipality. In the interwar period it housed an institution for poor boys run by the Albertine Brothers. After 1945 the palace contained flats and the seat of the municipal greenery company, and today a private technical school operates in it. The palace is therefore a building in use, not a museum, and you should not assume that you can enter its interiors.

What is in the park

Paths run through the park, and wooden bridges and benches stand along the routes. A walk from the main gate takes a few minutes. Among the features is the sculpture “Skalne nuty” (Rock Notes) made of stone and bronze, a work by Bronisław Chromy from 2003. The proximity of the Vistula and the boulevards means the park combines well with a walk along the river.

Practical information

• Address: near Praska Street (the larger part) and Czarodziejska Street (the smaller part), Dębniki. The nearest stop according to the Municipal Greenery Authority: Praska.
• The Lasocki Palace stands at Tyniecka 18 and is a building used by a school.
• It is about 1.5 km from here to Wawel Hill, and about a kilometre to the Manggha Museum.
• Information about the park: zzm.krakow.pl, Lista parków tab.