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During the Museum visit, it is definitely worthwhile to devote more time to see the courtyard.
After the damage caused by the Second World War, the Górka Palace almost completely fell into ruin. Fortunately, some of its parts remained intact, including the internal courtyard with an arcaded gallery, the elaborate Renaissance portal of the entrance gate from 1548, and the layout of the ground floor. The remaining part of the palace was reconstructed based on a drawing by Julius von Minutoli (1804-1860), which is why the building lost the features of the Renaissance magnate residence.
It is difficult to determine who was the architect responsible for the original Renaissance shape of the palace. Probably stonemasons who created sandstone columns of the courtyard came from Silesia. The entrance portal, characterised by a very clear structure and monumentalism, was probably carved by an Italian artisan, as evidenced by a far better quality of craftsmanship compared to the columns. The architectural research carried out in the palace in the second half of the 20th century revealed that the courtyard's arcades were open only on the ground floor, which was unusual for buildings in Poland of that time. Maria Jakimowiczowa, an art-historian specialised in the subject, points to the Florentine palaces as a source of inspiration for those constructions.
