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BOBROWNIKI, VIEW OF THE RUINS FROM THE NORTH
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earby the village of Bobrowniki, probably already in the first half of the 14th century, there was an unknown wooden castle, as evidenced by the documents issued here by the Duke of Dobrzyce and Leczyca Wladyslaw Siemowitowic called Garbacz (+1351/52). Several documents signed in this location have survived to the present day, which may indicate that at the turn of the fourth and fifth decade of the 14th century, Bobrowniki housed the administrative centre of the region. Together with the already existing customs and the Vistula river crossing, it created one of the geopolitically most important points on the map of the duchy. It is likely that after the death of Wladyslaw Garbacz, the castle came under the rule of
Casimir the Great (+1370), being still in his lifetime selected to be handed over to Kazko Slupski (+1377), the king's grandson, who was indicated by him as his direct successor. However, this did not happen, because after the annulment of Casimir's will, the Polish throne was taken over by
Ludwik Hungarian (+1382), who in 1377 granted Dobrzyn Land and the castle in Bobrowniki to Duke Wladyslaw Opolczyk (+1401). In 1391, this ruler, who was running a policy against Poland and being in conflict with King Wladyslaw Jagiello, pledged Dobrzyn Land to the Teutonic Order. This led to the armed intervention of Polish troops and the siege of the castle, succesfully defended by Wladyslaw Borzym the Grey mainly thanks to Teutonic Knights' support. At that time the fortress already had some brick fortifications, but the layout, degree of development and scale of these investments remain unknown.
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VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE WEST
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ppreciating strategic location of the stronghold, Teutonic Knights began to organize the local administration in this place, they probably also expanded the castle, and perhaps even built a new foundation based on the plan of the Piast castle. Bobrowniki also benefited from the presence of the Germans, because during the reign of the mayor Gottfried von Hotzfeld the settlement was given the status of a town and from that moment on it functioned as Stadt Beberen for a short time. However, not reconciled with the loss of these lands,
Jagiello strove to regain them. He succeeded in doing so in 1405, when, on the basis of peace treaty signed in Raciazek, Dobrzyn land returned to the Polish Kingdom. The castle was designated as the seat of the royal starosts, and the first to be appointed to the office was Warcislaw Gotartowic. Only four years after Bobrowniki was stationed with the Polish troops, the Order started the war with Jagiello, occupying surrounding towns and fortresses, including the Bobrowniki stronghold. Situation of the besieged crew was still being saved by the Archbishop of Gniezno, Mikolaj Kurowski, who, after negotiating a truce one day, promised to provide support in the strength of fifty soldiers. However, due to the passive attitude of Duke of Mazovia and Bishop of Plock, he was not able to realize it and the castle fell after being damaged by heavy Teutonic artillery. The decision to capitulate met with disapproval of Wladyslaw Jagiello, who, as a punishment for lack of bravery, ordered to place the starost and other commanders in the tower of
Checiny castle . However, all of them were soon released, and they wiped out their disgrace by fighting in the fields of Grunwald.
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CASTLE IN 1627, THE DRAWING CREATED BY A. BOOT
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fter the Teutonic Knights took over the castle, which took place on 28th August 1409, Boemund Brendel settled here and necessary repairs to the walls were made. However, Bobrowniki was in the hands of the Order only until 1410, and formally a year longer when, by decision of the First Torun Peace, they returned to the Kingdom of Poland. Poles appreciated the defensive values of the fortress by undertaking its modernization, as a result of which the castle received an additional, external line of walls, fortified foregates and corner towers adapted to use firearms. Despite high investments, Bobrowniki didn't play any military role for the next two centuries, serving primarily as the seat of the starost and the place where the town courts were held. After the end of the Thirteen Years' War, during which the castle was used to detain captured Teutonic Knights, the borders of the Kingdom of Poland were moved, thus depriving the castle of its strategic importance, becoming a typical administrative centre. The loss of basic military functions and negligence in the current maintenance of the stronghold led to a significant deterioration in its technical condition, as evidenced by information from the mid-16th century that there is not even a bridge to the castle. Although on the initiative of the starost Michal Dzialynski (+1576) some renovation works were undertaken here after 1570, their scope was not large and the effects did not stop the degradation of the walls for long. In 1616 Michal Dzialynski (+1618), the nephew of the aforementioned Michal, once again made an attempt to modernize the castle by renovating its internal buildings and putting the ramparts protecting it against washing away as a result of frequent floods of the Vistula river.
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THE RUINS OF CASTLE IN BOBROWNIKI ON WATERCOLOUR, NAPOLEON ORDA 1883
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WOJCIECH GERSON RUINS OF THE CASTLE BOBROWNIKI AT THE VISTULA RIVERSIDE, SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY
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uring the war between Poland and Sweden over the Vistula estuary, the castle no longer had a roof and part of the outer perimeter of the walls was demolished, which is shown in a drawing made in 1627 by the mediator in this conflict Abraham Boot (+1636). In 1629 the stronghold was already in such a bad condition that it was inhabited only by the servants, while the starost resided in the building in the castle farm. The urgent need for efficient functioning of the seat of the municipal administration was reflected in the resolution of the Sejm in 1641, by whose decision it was to be rebuilt at the expense of the citizens of the Dobrzyn Land. However, this investment was not successful, and the Swedes contributed to the final collapse of the castle by burning it in 1656 together with the archives stored here. Shortly after the Swedish army left Poland, small repairs were made to walls and roofs, thanks to which the building was still inhabited and used for some time. In the absence of adequate financial resources, its poor technical condition continued to worsen and in 1765 it is described as partly still standing within the walls. In 1776, the chancellery was moved to Lipno, thus closing the nearly 400-year-old history of the castle, which from then on was only a deserted ruin. At the beginning of the 19th century, by decision of the central administration, some of the fortifications and castle buildings were demolished in order to obtain building material. Over the following decades, the object was rapidly eroded. Shortly after the walls were demolished, the high level of the Vistula led to its exit from the main riverbed and spreading over the surrounding fields, cutting off the road to ruins, which were on island until the 1980s. The first archaeological and architectural research was carried out here in the 1970s, and a decade later wide-ranging work was done to secure the walls and partially reconstruct them.
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BOBROWNIKI IN THE DRAWING BY JAN OLSZEWSKI, 1903
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ARCHIVAL PHOTO FROM THE 1930S
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he castle was built on an artificially raised hill, above the level of the surrounding area, in the immediate vicinity of the right bank of the Vistula river. Its exterior walls and bases of the residential buildings were made of stone reinforced with mortar, while when the interior walls and the tower were erected, the basic building material was brick. The older part of the building had a square plan with a side of 46.5 meters and was surrounded by the wall, which was sometimes 3.5 meters thick. The main part of interior layout was a brick residential house measuring 15x46 meters, covering the entire length of the west curtain. It was a three-storey building, with a line interior arrangement and a gable roof with triangular peaks to the north and south. At basement level its interior was divided into three rooms and probably this division was also repeated on upper floors. On the northern side, the residential house was adjacent with a tower protruding slightly in front of walls, built on a rectangular plan with sides of 10.5x11.5 meters, in which two narrow gates and a gateway about 3 meters wide were placed on the ground floor. Dominating in the shape of castle was the main tower erected in the eastern corner of the courtyard, in the lower parts square, higher cylindrical. Internal layout of the fortress was complemented by a narrow brick building located along the southern curtain of the walls, between the tower and the western house, as well as wooden economic buildings concentrated in the eastern part of the courtyard. The outer perimeter of the castle may have additional reinforcements like a stockade.
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RECONSTRUCTION OF THE XV CENTURY CASTLE ACCORDING TO JAN SALM, VIEW FROM THE NORTH
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RECONSTRUCTION OF THE XV CENTURY CASTLE ACCORDING TO J. SLAWINSKI, VIEW FROM THE SOUTH
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fter 1410, the castle was surrounded by a second perimeter of the outer walls, 12 metres away from the older line of fortifications, also reinforced with buttresses. In this way, an inter-wall was created, cut from the north-west by the gate neck connecting the older entrance tower with the foregate. The outer walls were additionally fortified by placing small towers in their corners, adapted to the use of firearms. The whole was surrounded by a moat fed by the waters of the Vistula. Modernisations carried out in later years were dictated by the castle's administrative function and had no military character. It is likely that in the 16th century new buildings were erected or existing ones were enlarged, reducing the area of the courtyard.
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PLAN AND VIEW OF THE CASTLE RUINS IN BOBROWNIKI: 1. INNER WALL, 2. WESTERN RESIDENTIAL BUILDING, 3. GATE TOWER,
4. MAIN TOWER, 5. SOUTHERN BUILDING, 6. OUTER WALL, 7. BUTTRESS, 8. INTER-WALL, 9. GATE NECK, 10. CORNER TOWERS
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VIEW OF THE RUINS FROM THE WEST, IN THE FOREGROUND ON THE RIGHT A FRAGMENT OF A PARTIALLY RECONSTRUCTED BUTTRESS
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owever, more than three decades have passed since the reconstruction of the castle ruins, which can unfortunately be seen in the number of cavities in the face of the walls and in the numerous debris as a natural consequence of their rapid erosion. There is also a noticeable lack of the stronghold's host, which urgently needs to be cleared of self-seeders, and of the huge amount of garbage that is lying in its
cellars , now adapted to
the den . While visiting the ruins within the courtyard is not associated with greater risk, exploring the walls in places of former buildings can be dangerous not only because of significant differences in height, but also and above all because of
pieces of steel protruding from concrete blocks, which are easily stumbled upon. Since 2017 the owner of the castle is the Municipality of Bobrowniki.
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A CASTLE ON THE VISTULA RIVER SIDE
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CURTAIN WALLS PARTIALLY RECONSTRUCTED IN THE 1980S
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obrowniki is located about 17 km north of Wloclawek, on the opposite side of the Vistula. Driving from the city side, behind the river you must turn into Grodzka Street and then after about 1.5 km turn right into Witoszynska Street. In Nowy Witoszyn turn left to Winduga and Rachcinek, and continue straight to Bobrowniki. The ruins are located by the river, to the west of the Market Square, from where you should drive along Koscielna Street (direction Czernikowo), and then dirt Zamkowa Street. Cars can be parked on field near the gate.
(castles in Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship)
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1. T. Graff: Kościół w Polsce wobec konfliktu z zakonem krzyżackim w XV wieku, Księgarnia Akademicka 2010
2. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
3. M. Krysiński, M. Trochonowicz: Zamek w Bobrownikach - problematyka techniczna i konserwatorska, 2013
4. S. Szybkowski: Elita ziemi dobrzyńskiej na przełomie XIV i XV wieku..., Średniowiecze Polskie... 3 (7) 2011
5. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019
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CARS AND MOTORBIKES WE PARK NEAR THE FORMER GATE, AND BIKES IN THE COURTYARD ;-)
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Castles nearby:
Raciazek - ruins of Kujawy bishops' castle from the 14th century, 17 km
Wloclawek - relics of Kujawy bishops' castle from the 14th century, currently the palace of the bishops, 20 km
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text: 2020
photographs: 2017, 2019
© Jacek Bednarek
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