The Kórnik Library is one of the oldest and most valuable establishments in Poland. By creating a library during the Partitions of Poland and collecting valuable old books and manuscripts, Tytus Działyński intended to save and foster Polish culture and traditions for posterity. Heir to Tytus – Jan Działyński – secured and expanded the Library. Having no heir himself, Jan Działyński left the Działyński inheritance to his nephew, Władysław Zamoyski, who continued his grandfather's and uncle's work. Just before his death, Władysław Zamoyski donated the entire inherited property to the Polish nation. In 1924, he established a Foundation meant to supervise the Library, a museum and the Institute of Dendrology. The Zakłady Kórnickie Foundation operated until 1953 when it was taken over by the Polish Academy of Sciences and has remained within its structure until today. The library continues assembling, developing and sharing its collections. The latest technologies have enabled us to provide the library and museum collections to the largest possible number of readers. The collections have been successively digitized and made available on the Digital Platform of the Kórnik Library created as part of the EU project POPC.02.03.01-IP.01-00-002/15 “Digital access to the resources of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Library”.

Between about 1414 and 1592, the castle in Kórnik belonged to the Górka family – representatives of the Polish Crown’s power elite in the Early Modern era. In the third quarter of the 16th century, on the initiative of its then-owner, Count Stanisław Górka, the castle and its surroundings were modernised and extended. This article seeks to reconstruct and interpret the resulting residence complex, with particular focus on the castle, but also the private town, family church and hunting lodge. Some basic questions are asked concerning the new architectural solutions appearing at the time, the provenance of the formal-ideal models, and the author of the modernization design. In the adopted research method, assuming an interdisciplinary approach, the residence is seen as resultant of the investor’s needs and possibilities arising from his social, political and financial position.