Willa Decjusza

You can read the Willa Decjusza—today a calm institutional building in the greenery—not only as a Renaissance villa, but as a record of ownership, political pressure, and rebuilding over nearly five centuries. The story begins with a commission. In the years 1530 to 1540, Just Ludwik Decjusz, the owner of Wola Justowska, ordered the construction of a manor on this site.

It was covered by a high roof and arranged with windows set irregularly—an approach that suggests a working country estate rather than a symmetrical showpiece. In front of the façade, the manor included a small view loggia, giving the occupants an architectural excuse to look out over their landscape. That early phase matters because it anchors everything that follows.

Later additions did not erase the villa’s identity; they layered new ambitions onto an older frame. Even debates about authorship underline this point. Modern research rules out the participation of Italian architects named in some older accounts—Giovanni Cini of Siena, Bernardinus de Gianottis, and Filip from Fiesole.

Other scholars had even suggested Bereccie as a possible co-creator; today, the connection is treated as speculative rather than secure. Around 1590, the property changed hands when Sebastian Lubomirski bought it.