2 Best Sights in Excursions from Warsaw, Poland

The stunning country estate of the Radziwiłł family includes an impressive baroque palace designed by Tilman van Gameren in the late 17th century. In 1945, the estate was taken over by the National Museum of Warsaw, and it still contains the home's original furnishings. When you walk around the museum, you can admire wooden panels, cobalt tiles, imposing stoves and fireplaces, and numerous paintings and sculptures—notably the ancient head of Niobe. The palace outbuilding houses temporary exhibitions of modern art. The regular, symmetrical baroque park, designed in the 16th century, is truly magnificent. The palace's hunting pavilion contains a number of limited-access guest rooms, where you can stay if you apply far in advance and have a valid reference from an associated artistic, scientific, or political organization. (Book far ahead; no children allowed.)

To get here from Żelazowa Wola, return to the 2 (E30) and drive west to Łowicz; then take Route 70 southeast about 10 km (6 miles). PKS buses run from Warsaw's main bus station in the direction of Łowicz, with stops at both Nieborów and Arkadia. Several guided tours starting in Warsaw include both Chopin's birthplace in Żelazowa Wola and Nieborów (and sometimes Arkadia Park as well).

Arkadia Park is, like Nieborów, a part of the Radziwiłł family estate and was a noble obsession of Helena z Przeździeckich Radziwiłłowa, who devoted 20 years of her life to the making of it. The imaginary realm of happiness, the romantic park is landscaped in the English style and was designed by renowned landscape architects of the time (in the late 18th century and early 19th century). The 14-hectare parkland is filled with nooks and oases for contemplation and paths for strolling around, brooks and lakes, and fairy-tale construction: artificial ruins, grottoes, and the like.