At the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, the region where today's town of Waplewo Wielkie was located belonged to the tribes of ancient Prussia called Pomezania. This tribe occupied the areas along the eastern bank of the Vistula, from the Chełmno Land (Kulmerland) to the area of ​​today's Elbląg. At that time, tribal people dealt with hunting, beekeeping, fishing, farming and raising cattle. They built strongholds of stone and wood in the area they occupied (usually in the hills). In case of danger, the people from the surrounding settlements hid in the nearest settlement. Such strongholds were in Dzierzgoń, Stary Dzierzgoń, Nowy Targ, Kalwa, Biała Góra (Zantyr), Rodów, and Saint Grove (Cholin). Tribes had their own religious rituals. They worshiped trees (mainly oaks), groves, and boulders, which they considered as ghost habitats. The largest Pomezanian tribe in our region was the Tessymin (Tessyma) tribe with the main seat, i.e. the stronghold, between Balewski (Balau) and Dzierzgoń. Their descendants and relatives occupied the area from Rodów to Dąbrówka Malborska, Tulice (Tulin), Waplewo (Resynen), Ramoty (Ramota), Chojty (Koiten), up to Budzisz. It is likely that the tribe was baptized fairly quickly by the Teutonic Knights, for which they received appropriate privileges.

     The first mention of Waplewo and surrounding lands dates back to the years 1302 – 1306, the area received from the Teutonic Order of Prussia, Tessim (Thessim). In 1323, a man named Wapil took over the area and founded a settlement called Wapels (Wapelle). In 1376 the name Wapils appeared in documents. Its owner, according to 15th-Century registers, was Segenand von Wapils, a knight of the Teutonic Order known for his diplomatic and political work. After the peace of Toruń with the Teutonic Knights, from 1476 the settlement officially bears the name WAPLEWO.

     From 1483, Maciej Raba became the owner. After the fall of the Teutonic state, the lands of the order were divided into Royal Prussia, belonging to Poland and Prussian Prussia, belonging to the established Prussian Duchy, a vassal of Poland. Maciej Raba held the office on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Elbląg castellan in the years 1485 - 1503 and later the Malbork voivode. In addition to Waplew, he was the owner of Tulice (Tillendorf), Trop, Bukowa, Jordanek, and Różnów. Presumably at that time, the first manor was established in Waplewo, and historical sources confirm there was a garden here.

     The Raba family ruled these settlements until 1581. The last of their descendants, Katarzyna Raba, through subsequent marriages in 1611 married Maciej Niemojewski. Two grave plates of the Raba family are in the parish church in Stary Targ. In 1641, the village was one of the villages sold by Niemojewski for the price of 78 thousand. PLN to Count Jan Biberstein-Zawadzki. Zawadzki erected a brick manor in Waplewo, the contours of which have survived to this day. In compliance with 17th-Century trends, the manor was designed as a low, one-story structure with side doors imitating alcoves. During his reign and his family successors, the estates included the towns of: Mikołajki, Minięta, Nowy Targ, Stary Targ, Szropy, Bukowo, Trankwice, Bągart, Ankamaty, Poliks, Morany, Krasna Łąka, Tulice and others within the area of ​​about 6,000 ha.

     The last of the Zawadzki family in Waplewo was Katarzyna Zawadzka, married to Jan Marcin Chełstowski, who became the next owner of the property. Their daughter Barbara married Teodor Bagniewski in 1726, who took over the property. They had a son Józef, who married Marianna Chrząstowska, who after an early widowhood after 1759 remarried Teodor Sierakowski. The Zawadzki family chapel is located in the monastery church in Dzierzgoń.

     Teodor Sierakowski bought the partially sold out Vedic estate, and so the Sierakowski family began farming these lands. At the end of the 18th century, next to the palace, an English park was created. In 1827 Fryderyk Chopin visited there, giving concerts with the owner of the village, Antoni Sierakowski. Count Alfons Sierakowski, who was the owner of the estate from 1842, expanded the manor. It was given the features of a palace foundation. The manor became the center of cultural and social life in Pomerania. Inside, there were numerous paintings and a collection of weapons from around the world.

     In 1873, a grave chapel was built in Waplewo Wielkie, where the bodies of the Sierakowski family lie (currently it is a full Catholic Church). There is, among others the alabaster epitaph of "Resurrection of Christ" and baroque altars and the Gothic sculpture of the Madonna.

     In 1888, the Sierakowski family expanded the manor, granting it palace characteristics. The manor was constructed on a rectangular plan, the longer side of which, from the east, received two wings in the form of alcoves, giving the entire structure the shape of letter C. Seen from the front, it gives the impression of a modest, one-story building with a break in the middle and two lower side wings. The rear section, having been reconstructed in the neoclassical style, acquired the characteristic of an ancient building - it is a multi-storied structure, with the additional floor crowned with a triangular pediment with ornaments, supported by slender columns which cover the balcony. Once, the manor was connected from the park side with a beautiful winter garden - the Sierakowski family was famous for its collector's passion of the field of botany. In the following years, this orangery became a residential annex.

     Railway line #222 stretching from Małdyty to Malbork through Waplewo Wielkie (Gross Waplitz) was opened on September 1, 1893. A rail depot and other railway buildings were built just south of the town. Due to poor technical condition, passenger transport was suspended on October 1, 1999, and freight in 2000. The line was demolished in 2006–2008.

     At the turn of the 20th century, the estate was managed by count Adam Sierakowski. The waplewskie estate extended to Rychendrysy (now Andrzejewo), Ramten (Ramoty), Tillendorf (Tulice), Olszak (Ellerbruch), Schonweise (Krasna Łąka), and Waplewko. In Waplewo there were then a Catholic school, a hospital and a steam distillery. 1909 brought a change of ownership for the Waplewo estate and surrounding farms. Sick Adam Sierakowski passed the property over to his son Stanisław, keeping Ramoty and Krasna Łąka to himself until his death. He lived until March 1912 and after his death, the preserved farms were handed over to his second son Jan. He was little interested in inherited estates, preferring to travel around France and Switzerland. He died in Nice in 1920, childless and the farms passed to Stanisław. Stanisław Sierakowski, an educated farmer (studied in Berlin and Brussels) in March 1910 married wife Helena Lubomirska from Przeworsk. He and his wife could already come to Waplew by rail, which had operated on the Malbork - Małdyty line since 1893.

     During the time of their family’s management, through the 1772 partitions of Poland, the November Uprising, the January Uprising and plebiscite in 1920, the Sierakowski Family cared for the Polishness of these lands and the preservation of Polish culture.

     The last owners of waplewskie estates, Stanisław and Helena Sierakowski, were murdered by the Nazis in October 1939 near Rypin, where they had ancestral property. As a result of the bankruptcy of the Sierakowski family in 1933, new administrators appeared in Waplewo. The Zbigniew Donimirski family managed the estate, excluding the palace and park, until the outbreak of World War II. During the war, the property was taken over by the Germans and their administrator was Joachim von Mellenthin. The Donimirski’s and their son, Kazimierz, were partly imprisoned by the Germans. Because they could not reside in the palace, a manor was built next to the palace. The Nazis treated Kazimierz as an enemy and sent him to the concentration camp in Stutthof.

     After January 1945, the German administration residing in this palace hastily left the palace interiors. Hurried, because from the east, the Soviet army was gradually approaching. Waplewski cultural goods were in the keen interest of German museum workers from Gdańsk, so they looted what they could. How much time was between the Germans leaving the palace and the Bolsheviks entering Waplew? Maybe a week or two. During that time, the inhabitants of Waplewo "reviewed" the palace and removed religious images and other items. They didn't find much because, what had value, the Germans had already taken.

     The Russians passed through Waplewo like a storm. They probably did not even reside here, because the palace would have looked so poorly. The new administrative authority came. Altmark (Stary Targ) was demolished in the center of the village, the German church (the area of ​​today's school) was in ruins. There was only a demolished brickyard and sawmill in Waplewo. Waplewo looked better than Stary Targ after the war, and it was here that the municipal authorities were established, later relocating to Stary Targ.

     The palace and park, as well as 15 hectares of remains, were still owned by the Sierakowski family, but according to the government of the Polish People's Republic, this family was not allowed to live there. A state farm was set up in the estates of the Sierakowski family, and this new creation coped poorly with the economy. In part of the palace, administrative employees of the State Farms were accommodated. In the village, as before the war, manual and operational workers lived. This new Bolshevik economy was going poorly all over Poland. The palace fell into a gradual ruin and those administrative members of the State Farms were eager to leave it as soon as new housing resources appeared in the village.

     From 1954, the National Breeding Center became part-owner. An interesting fact is that any use of the palace and chapel was illegal until 1968, because until that year the palace, park, chapel and farm buildings belonged to the Sierakowski family. It was not until 1968 that Andrzej Sierakowski (the legally appointed owner), father of Izabela Sierakowska, renounced these goods.

     Over time, one of the large palace rooms (Gdańsk room), began to be used at the disposal of the traveling cinema. There were longitudinal benches in rows, a screen on a large white canvas and a projector. After the era of traveling cinema, again nothingness came to empty halls.

     In the 1970's, the owners decided to do something with this palace. The youth of waplewska cleaned up and helped. It was decided to make WAPLEWO GUEST HOUSE. The district and local management, with sponsoring from the Gdańsk Shipyard, performed a general renovation of the palace and its modernization. As part of this modernization, part of the palace outbuilding was demolished and a hall was built there. Some rooms on the first floor were converted into hotel rooms and in another part of the palace, a bakery and restaurant kitchen were built. A general restoration of the park's gazebo was made and the park regained its former walking paths and bridges on the dikes. The works were completed at the end of the eighties, but again fell into disrepair after the nineties (mainly due to its underheating).

     In the 1990's, the waplewskie lands were sold out by the State Agency for Agricultural Property. The Sierakowski Palace was handed over to the National Museum in Gdańsk as a Museum of the Noble Tradition and the Pomeranian Center for Contact with Polonia.

     In the years 1945–1975 the town of Waplewo Wielkie administratively belonged to the Gdansk Province, and in the years 1975–1998 to the Elblag Province.

     In 1990 (after being separated from the parish in Stary Targ) a parish was created: St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe in Waplewo Wielkie, belonging to the deanery of Dzierzgoń and the Diocese of Elblag. Erected on July 1, 1990. Until 1992 it belonged to the diocese of Warmia. On March 25, 1992, she was incorporated into the Diocese of Elbląg.

     The manor village grew just south of the manor complex. The rural layout from the beginning of the fourteenth century has been preserved. In addition to the palace (which includes a fireplace from 1600) and the church, other outbuildings exist from the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a gazebo and orangery from the mid-19th century, a distillery from 1864, a water tower from 1893, and remains of a forge, stables, barns, columns and fencing around the church from the end of the 19th century, and a cemetery. The palace, park, outbuildings, orangery and church were entered in the register of monuments.