MIŁOSŁAW
A town and a municipality’s official seat, Miłosław is situated in Września district (powiat) on a rivulet called Miłosławka, ca. 15 km south of Września.
The locality was first mentioned by historic records of the early 14th century as property of the knightly family of Doliwa of Miłosław. In mid-19th century, the local estates were owned by Seweryn Mielżyński, one of the most outstanding figures of the time. […] A man known for his patriotism and passion for fine arts for which he was a genuine carer and patron. His house at Miłosław always remained open to all the national artists […], as Teodor Żychliński wrote of him. Seweryn took part in the November Insurrection of 1830 and was decorated with the Virtuti Militari cross. Later on, he acted as a delegate to the sejm (parliament) and one of the founders of the Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences, to which he bestowed in his will his collection of paintings and other objects of value, which formed a nucleus of what was to evolve into a museum.
On Mielżyński’s initiative and probably basing upon designs he had made, a small hunting castle was erected ca. 1850, situated on a rather small afforested hill, ca. 2 km south of Miłosław, as part of a farming developments complex – so-called pheasantry. It was built in a picturesque romanticist neo-gothic style, following the model of mediaeval stronghold surrounded with ramparts with donjons, turrets, shooting galleries and battlements. It was in the same style that a wooden superstructure of a hunting lookout was built, situated on the walls and connected with the main residential building via a brick veranda supported by semicircular arches.
