Krzyżtopór

Krzysztof Ossoliński (1587–1645), Voivode of Sandomierz, received the village of Ujazd from his father, Jan Zbigniew Ossoliński, in 1619. The first documentary trace of building work dates only from 1627, when the castle was still unfinished; it was probably completed in 1644, after Ossoliński had spent some 30 million Polish złotys on the work. The design — attributed since an 1894 study by Stanisław Tomkowicz to a builder known as Lauretius de Sente, or Wawrzyniec (Lawrence) Senes — followed the palazzo in fortezza model of Cardinal Alexander Farnese's palace at Caprarola, combining palace and fortress on a five-sided plan with corner bastions. Reportedly it held 365 windows for the days of the year, 52 rooms for the weeks and 12 ballrooms for the months. Ossoliński named it Krzysztofory, after his own name; the later name Krzyżtopór compounds krzyż, the cross of his Catholic faith and politics, with topór, the axe of the family's coat of arms, both carved above the gate. He did not enjoy the finished palace for long, dying suddenly in Kraków the following year, 1645.

Ossoliński's son, Krzysztof Baldwin, inherited the estate and died in 1649 at the Battle of Zborów. The succession after him is recorded two ways: by purchase, the castle going to the Denhoff family and then the Kalinowskis; or by inheritance, passing to the founder's brother Jerzy Ossoliński and, on his death in 1650, to Jerzy's daughter Urszula, whose husband Samuel Jerzy Kalinowski fell soon after at the Battle of Batoh. Either way, a Kalinowski held Krzyżtopór when the Swedes invaded in 1655; the castle was captured and occupied until 1657, and pillaged so thoroughly that its owners judged it too costly to rebuild. The Kalinowski family kept formal possession, unoccupied, until 1701.

The Morsztyn family moved into the best-preserved western wing in 1720; the castle then passed through the female line to General Michał Jan Pac, who renovated its southern range in 1760. Its owner favoured the Bar Confederation, and Confederate units defended Krzyżtopór in 1770 before Russian troops burned it, completing its ruin. Kajetan Sołtyk bought the remains in 1782 and left them to Stanisław Sołtyk, whose household was the castle's last recorded occupant, from 1782 to 1787; King Stanisław August Poniatowski visited that year, and after Sołtyk's tenure ended Krzyżtopór stood deserted.

The Orsetti family bought the estate in 1858 and lived in the neighbouring manor until 1944; the castle itself was ransacked again during the Second World War, then passed to the Polish state. A partial remodelling followed in 1971, and in 1980 the Polish state began rebuilding the complex as a rest centre for officers, work halted the following year when martial law was declared. Local legend holds that the Ossolińskis, father and son, were punished for their vanity by dying too soon to enjoy what they had built, and that a hidden family treasure still lies under the ruins, guarded by the ghost of Krzysztof Baldwin Ossoliński.

About 90 percent of Krzyżtopór's walls survive, and the site has held National Historic Monument status since 2018. It remains a permanent ruin rather than a restoration, open to ticketed visitors by day and on selected nights.