File:Baranow Sandomierski Castle 01.jpg

English: Entrance to Baranów Sandomierski Castle/Palace.

Baranów Sandomierski is a small town in southern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Province, Tarnobrzeg County on the Vistula River. The settlement or the gord of Baranów was first mentioned in 1135. It was conveniently located near the Vistula river ford, and in 1354 it was granted town charter by King Casimir III the Great. Baranów belonged to the Baranowski family, and in the late fifteenth century it became property of the Kurozwecki family. In 1518 Barbara Kurozwecka married Stanisław Górka, so Baranów remained in the hands of the Górka family until 1560, when it was sold to Rafał Leszczyński. During the Protestant Reformation, Baranów was an important center of Calvinism. The town prospered due to grain trade, as well as its artisans. Its decline began during the catastrophic Swedish invasion of Poland (1655 - 1660), when Baranów was ransacked and burned. In 1677 the town was sold to Dymitr Wiśniowiecki, later on it belonged to the Lubomirski family, and the Potocki family. After the partitions of Poland Baranów found itself in the Austrian province of Galicia, where it remained from 1772 until 1918.

The town is well known for its picturesque Renaissance Castle/Palace built in 1591-1606. It is known as "Little Wawel". This Castle is a class zero monument. It is believed to be the work of the famous architect, Santi Gucci, the court artist of King Sigismund II Augustus, who brought many foreign architects from around Europe to Poland in the sixteenth century. The Castle was built around 1591–1606 for Rafał and Andrzej Leszczyński. Its style comes from the Italian renaissance. By the end of the seventeenth century, the next owners were the Lubomirski family, who decided to change the residence. They hired a Dutch architect, who added columns on the inside of the Castle courtyard, on which there was a gallery of art by Giovanni Battista (unfortunately the art was destroyed in two fires in 1848 and 1898). The Scotch Mist Gallery contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland.