Viewing of this exhibition is a natural first step into exploring the city through The House of Branicki Trail. The grand mock-up of the 18th century Białystok was built in 2001 based on historical maps, inventories written down after Branicki’s death as well as other source materials. In 2018 the Museum created an approx. 20-minute multimedia show with dubbing, bringing the visitors into the world of “Versailles of the North”.

The entrance to the Branicki palace complex is in the form of a representative Great Gate, which looks like a triumphal arch. The gate is known by the name “Gryf” (“Griffin”) deriving from a golden animal from the Branicki coat of arms decorating the tower. The griffin sits on a gold sphere and holds in its claws the coat of arms with the owner’s initials. Together with panoplies and an image of a descending eagle, the gate symbolises glory, divine ancestry and virtue of the House of Branicki. In the present location it was raised around 1755 or 1758, when Branicki was at the peak of his political career.
Inside the building, there is a unique antiquity: the mechanism of one of the oldest working turret clocks in Poland. The clock, forged by hand by Branicki’s order, was a symbol of status, but also of triumph over time. The clock can be viewed in the tourist season.

The most recognizable historic building in Białystok is the grandiose Branicki residence. The construction started in the end of the 17th century by Stefan Mikołaj Branick,i who hired an excellent architect Tylman from Gameren. The renovation was then completed and perfected by Jan Klemens Branicki in 1720-1760, with the construction directed by architects Jan Zygmunt Deybel, Jakub Fontana and Jan Henryk Klemm. After dying without an heir, hetman Branicki’s relatives sold the whole complex to a Prussian king, after the third Partition of Poland. However, in the 19th century, when Białystok was incorporated into the Russian Empire, the palace changed completely. It was passed on to serve the Institute of Noble Maidens, which was being created then. At that time the baroque character of the place was lost, the room layout changed and the precious furnishings were sent away into Russia. During the I World War, the palace was home to a German field hospital and in the reborn Poland the building was used as Voivodeship Office. The end for the original building came with the pounding caused by the German army at the end of the II World War. After the war, a decision was made to create the Medical Academy there and therefore the palace was rebuilt. The 18th-century interior design was not fully recreated and today only in a few of the palace rooms its great baroque history can be experienced.
The palace consists of the main corpus, where the owners’ chambers and representative rooms were, and outbuildings, which were known as the guest outbuilding (on the right) and the kitchen outbuilding (on the left). In the right outbuilding the Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Medical University of Białystok operates today. Going on the “Walk into the past” tour there provides access to exhibitions of the “medical” history of the place starting from Branicki’s times, the cellars with a multimedia story as well as some representative rooms. The courtyards are also part of the palace complex: the fore courtyard with fountains and a double lane of dutch lime trees and the gala courtyard, decorated with 2 18th-century statues of Hercules fighting with a dragon and a hydra.

The garden lounge, the revitalized upper part of the complex, is according to experts one of the best reconstructed baroque gardens of the Polish Saxon period. The lounge consists of eight embroidery boxwood parterres with flower borders. In the 4 middle parterres fountains with mythological figures symbolising the 4 seasons can be found, while in the 4 outer parterres – sculptures of putti symbolise zodiac signs and elements. In summer, orangery plants – citrus trees and laurels – are exhibited in red and white pots, reflecting the colours of the Branicki coat of arms. In the main avenue of the lounge there are sculptures presenting mythological figures, some of them are the originals from the 18th century. On the edge of the upper and lower garden a dark green pavilion grabs the visitors’ attention – it is the reconstructed “Pavilion under the Eagle”. On the opposite side there is a tree-covered terrain where bosquets – intricately trimmed, tall walls of hornbeam bushes – used to be. Among the trees, there is the Italian pavilion with columns and a dividing screen closing the diagonal perspective looking from the palace. Entrances to the old bosquets are guarded by herms with mythological deities and trellis columns.
The gardens can be freely accessed all year round, however, they are the most beautiful in the summer, when flowers are in bloom and intricate “embroidery” of the parterres can be viewed from the palace’s terrace, accessible in the tourist season.

A charming baroque palace, closing the panoramic view of the Kilińskiego Street, today is the headquarters of city institutions. It was intended to be Izabela Branicka’s maison de plaisance – a place of relaxation and retreat from the court etiquette. The construction of the palace started in 1771, the year of Branicki’s death, but it was never finished. During the following centuries, the building was home to flats, restaurants and museums. At the beginning of the 21st century, the interiors were arranged to reflect the potential form they could have taken if the palace had been finished in the 18th century. On the top floor, the representative rooms of the Chancellery of the Mayor of Białystok are situated. They present classicizing baroque style with the Branicki family portraits, paintings of their residence and symbolic recreations taken from mythology. The bottom part of the palace is where the Register Office is situated – the “garden rooms” in the style of a flowery rococo.

The 18th-century rectory, today the representative headquarters of Archbishop Curia, was funded by Branicki for the use of The Apostolic Union of Secular Priests, who led the parish for some time. The 10-axis building is covered with a hipped roof and there is a symbol of a galero above the entrance. Inside, in one of the rooms, there is a fresco of 3 angels visiting Abraham, created by the Branicki court artist Antoni Herliczka.

The oldest building in Białystok, built in the 1st half of the 17th century, is one of the most important places connected with the House of Branicki. The church was renovated by J. K. Branicki and arranged in baroque style. In the beginning of the 20th century, a historic neo-Gothic “extension” was built. The interiors of the church are where monuments of Branicki’s father and grandmother hearts are (a black marble monument with columns on the right side of the altar), as well as a monument of Jan Klemens Branicki’s heart (a red marble chest held by 2 griffins on the left side of the altar). In the so-called funders’ crypt, below the church, Izabela Branicka was buried and on the right side of the church a characteristic epitaph is located – it is in the form of an embroidered image and it is devoted to Izabela Branicka. The church is open during Sunday masses and celebrations during the week. It is worth stepping into, if there is a possibility to do it.

The building was funded by J. K. Branicki for a hospital/poorhouse in 1762. The sick were taken care of by doctors and the Sisters of Mercy. In the 19th century, the building was home to the Białystok Charity Society, which rented the rooms for shops, workshops, printing works and others. During the interwar period, a hall with an auditorium was added to the building and a cinema theatre “Świat” (“The World”) was opened. The building survived the II World War and already in 1944 Teatr Miejski (Municipal Theatre) was opened here. It was used by the authorities as a place for demonstrational executions of soldiers of the Independence Underground. Memorial plaques next to the entrance tell of these tragic events. The “Ton” Cinema was run here from 1956 until the beginning of the 21st century. Nowadays, the renovated cinema hall is used for showings, concerts, lectures and events organized by the parish and other institutions. Moreover, a Catholic bookshop is located here.

It is one of two buildings in Białystok that remind of the military career of Hetman J. K. Branicki. The armory, funded in the middle of the 18th century, was meant for guard duty, a military equipment repository, but firefighters’ grappling hooks and fire hoses were also kept here. The original structure was devastated during the II World War and it was rebuilt in an almost completely changed way. Because of the need to enlarge the square, it was also moved a little further back into the property. The original localization can be seen as red lines in the paving. Today, the Sleńdziński Family Gallery is located here.

It was funded in 1768-1769 for the St. Vincent de Paul Sisters of Charity, invited to the town by Branicki. Sightseers’ attention can be drawn by a baroque-classicizing form of the building, with a triangular tympan above the main entrance where an oval medallion with St. Martin’s image is. The Sisters of Charity, despite turmoil of history and common changes in the building’s purposes in the 19th and the 20th century (e.g. a popular hotel was located here), are the owners of the premises nowadays and they run a kindergarten and charitable activity here.

This baroque building with a mansard roof and a truncated corner was mentioned in 18th-century sources as a tenement. In the following centuries, the building held different functions and was owned by various people (e.g. by the first millionaire in Russia, Izaak Zabłudowski). During the interwar period, well-known pharmacies were run here, one of which was owned by Feliks Filipowicz, the first chairman of Białystok City Council after regaining independence in 1919, which is commemorated on a memorial plaque on the building. The historic tenement and the building added more recently create together a complex nowadays used by a cultural institution “NIEteatr”. The citizens are used to calling this building “Astoria” – from the name of a restaurant which used to be here for multiple years.

The centre of the triangular town square is occupied by the town hall, funded in the middle of the 18th century by Branicki more as a status symbol, rather than as a place for the city councillors. Since it was built until the II World War the building was used for mercantile purposes – there was a myriad of little shops in it. In 1940, during the Soviet occupation, the town hall was demolished and a monument of Stalin or a similar monument was supposed to be put there, highlighting the ties of “Western Belarus” with the USSR. The square was vacant until the middle of the 1950’s. After the reconstruction, the town hall has functioned as a museum. Today, an art gallery with Polish paintings is located here, where you can see portraits of Jan Klemens Branicki and his wife Izabela. If you take a look at the town hall from the right angle, you can see that it is smiling!

Around 13 km from Białystok, in his Choroszcz domain, J. K. Branicki created an impressive garden with a baroque canal. The canal’s waters run around a small island, where in 1725 a hunting manor began to be built, repurposed in the middle of the 18th century for “Palace on the Water”. On the tympan on the building the crests of Branicki (Gryf – “Griffin”) and Poniatowski (Ciołek – “Taurus”) can be seen. The palace and garden complex in Branicki’s time included outhouses, guest pavilions, a guardhouse and a porter’s house, destroyed during the I World War. The palace was rebuilt in the 1970’s and a museum of its interiors was opened here, where you can view furnishings and trinkets, representing styles from baroque to the 20th century ones.