Mogilany is a place known to everyone who has been on the trail from Krakow to Podhale, to Zakopane and through the Tatra mountains. Tens of peaks, ridges and mountain ranges overlapping each other are close far on the horizon by a crown of rocky peaks of Tatra Mountains. This view has enchanted visitors for ages. Thanks to archaeological work it has been determined that the first human colonies have been in existence since the Neolithic age. The foundation of the Mogilany colony was closely tied to the nearby trade route through the Karpaty Mountains and Hungary to the south of Europe. The first documented notion of reference to Mogilany comes from the twelfth century, when the village Mogilany was owned by the King and the Royal Guard was stationed here. For over 300 years, the Mogilany properties have been administered by the Cysters. Their only mark was a little wooden church built in Mogilany. It was them that founded an independent parish. Around the year 1560, the Mogilany properties were purchased by the Voivode of Sandomierz, Wawrzyniec Spytko Jordan, who built a large, wooden renaissance-style palace on a concrete foundation. Spytek was an art and humanist studies major, because of this there have been many visits by various major writers, artist and poets of the time, among them Fr Stanisław Orzechowski and Mikołaj Rej from Nagłowice. It so happened that in Mogilany Rej wrote "For the honest but careful Pole (...) a short, friendly reprimand”. Thanks to the printworks established in the palace annex, a well known Rej work, ”The life of a kind man” was issued. Through family colligations and inheritances the Mogilany properties have been owned in turn by the families of Potoccy, Lubomirscy, Taszyccy and Tarłowie.
In 1802, Mogilany along with Glogoczow were purchased by Józef Nowina Konopka, a hunter from Sanok, the heir of Modlnica, Zaleszany and Rustweczek. Mogilany remained in the hands of the Konopka family until 1939 and World War II. The Konopka family built a new classical, brick manor in place of the old one. In the time of German occupation, the manor was administered directly by the German elder of Krakow County. The victory over fascism in 1945 and the movement to national ownership of the People's Republic of Poland opens a new chapter in the history of Mogilany. In this time, ownership of the manorial land was transferred to Mogilany’s farmers, while the manor along with the garden became public property. It wasn’t until 1967 that the manor and its closest surroundings were transferred to the Polish Academy of Science, and, after general reparations, was converted to a conference centre.
