 Branicki Palace ( Polish : Pałac Branickich ) is a historical edifice and 9 @.@ 7 ha ( 24 acres ) park in Białystok . It was developed on the site of an earlier building in the first half of the eighteenth century by Jan Klemens Branicki , a wealthy Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth hetman , into a residence suitable for a man whose ambition was to be elected king of Poland . The palace complex with gardens , pavillons , sculptures , outbuildings and other structures and the city with churches , city hall and monastery , all built almost at the same time according to French models was the reason why the city was known in the eighteenth century as Versailles of Podlaskie ( Polish : wersalem podlaskim ) . 
