Lucjan Rydel, a poet, purchased this estate located in Bronowice village from Włodzimierz Tetmajer. He settled here with his wife, Jadwiga Mikołajczykówna – it’s their wedding that Stanisław Wyspiański described in his famous play “Wesele” (“The Wedding”). It is also the place where Rydel died in 1918. Thanks to Wyspiański’s play, which premiered in Słowacki Theater in 1901 Rydlówka gained great fame – everybody wanted to visit the place they saw on stage. The Rydel family made sure to preserve the site’s atmosphere and its Young Poland character expressed in material items. In 1968 Rydlówka was threatened by a fire, but fortunately the damage turned out to be limited. This event was one of the reasons that led to establishing a museum here, with the help from the Polish Tourist Society. Young Poland museum Rydlówka opened a year later. Valuable exhibits were deposited by various institutions, Jagiellonian University Museum being one of them.
The main exhibition is located on the ground floor in chambers quite accurately recreating the atmosphere of the era thanks to a reconstructed wedding hall, dance hall and ALKIERZ. The wedding hall is furnished with items based on DIDASKALIA from “Wesele” and in the ALKIERZ photos of the guests from the original wedding can be seen. There are also paintings of Young Poland artists on display. The manor still belongs to the Rydel family today.
Every year on the 21st of November an event takes place at Rydlówka called Raising of the Chochoł (Stawianie Chochoła) – a rememberance of the eerie, symbolic persona created by Wyspiański.