Every design for Siedlce

Siedlce lies between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, east of Warsaw, at what was once the northernmost tip of the Łuków land of Lesser Poland. First recorded in the fifteenth century, it grew out of two neighbouring villages and became a private town of artisans and merchants after King Sigismund the Old granted it Magdeburg rights.

The Pałac Ogińskich explains what came next. When Aleksandra Czartoryska married Hetman Michał Kazimierz Ogiński, Siedlce turned into one of the leading cultural centres of the country: Franciszek Karpiński and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz came to the palace, and King Stanisław August Poniatowski visited twice. Aleksandra also gave the town a new town hall, still one of its symbols. Later Siedlce served as a provincial capital more than once, and today it is the seat of a diocese, with a university and two notable museums.

Anyone who grew up here knows the walk from the market square into the Park Aleksandria, past the Kolumna toskańska. On the map those streets look just as small and as familiar as they feel.