In
Gosławice, in the park not far from the church and castle, until the
late 1960s there used to be a small brick manor house, rectangular
in plan, with a tiny porch supported by wooden poles. The double-tract
building with a vestibule on the axis had a pitched roof with jerkin
heads and was covered with shingle. A characteristic feature of the
manor was the construction technique of the second-story walls, the
so-called 'brick nogged timber wall'. Unfortunately, due to its bad
condition, the manor house had to be torn down. In 1863 the manor
probably housed a hospital providing medical care to those wounded
in the Polish uprising of 1863 against Russia.
A similar manor house was erected in Ruszków near the town of Koło
at the twilight of the 18th century. In the second half of the 19th
century it was partially renovated. Its square porch got a new look
after it was enclosed with walls. A flat-vaulted vestibule thus created
had two lancet windows. The alterations allowed to arrange a balcony
on the second story.
After the second World War the manor house in Ruszków was converted
into a school building. However, when the school was moved to another
location, the manor gradually became a ruin.
In 1988 the Provincial Restorer for the Historic Sites and Monuments
catalogued the manor's premises. Two years later the building was
reconstructed in Gosławice in the grounds belonging to the District
Museum. Thus an exhibition area of 400m2 was created. The manor houses
the exhibition entitled "The Polish Manor." On the basis
of diaries, inventories, and interviews with the elderly remembering
the two manors (in Gosławice and Ruszków), the interior of the house
was arranged with furniture and decorations dating back to the period
between the 18th and 20th centuries. However, the building has no
kitchen; it used to be located in the annex which has not been restored.
On
the first story there were six rooms arranged in enfilade, namely:
a dining-room, a living-room, a study, a bedroom, a wardrobe, and
a room for keeping tableware. On the second story all the rooms -
a guest room, governess's room, and the landlady's relaxation room
- have a separate entrance from the corridor. They were heated with
circular tile furnaces. In the living-room and the landlady's relaxation
room there are still semi-oval alcoves designed for such circular
furnaces. But the two front rooms on the second story - the guest
room and governess's room - were heated with a fireplace.

