29.09.2022 ... castle in Prabuty

In 1236, Teu­ton­ic troops in­vad­ed and burned the Prus­sian vil­lage of Rez­i­ja, which oc­cu­pied a strate­gic po­si­tion on the isth­mus be­tween Lake Li­wie­niec and (no longer ex­ist­ing) Mill Pond. Soon af­ter, Teu­ton­ic Knights erect­ed a wood­en watch­tow­er called Re­sin­burg in the same place, but in 1243 it was in turn de­stroyed by Prus­sian squads... more

18.09.2022 ... castle in Koło

The old­est ex­ist­ing his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ence to a lo­ca­tion named Koło is found in the town char­ter is­sued in Ju­ly 1362 by King Ka­zi­mierz Wiel­ki. Pre­sum­ably, how­ev­er, the cas­tle at this place func­tioned much ear­li­er, per­haps dur­ing the reign of the Pol­ish King Wła­dy­sław Ło­kie­tek or even at the time of Czech King Vá­clav II, who ruled Greater Poland in years 1300-1305... more

11.09.2022 ... castle in Kamienna Góra

Sup­pos­ed­ly, al­ready in the sec­ond half of the 13th cen­tu­ry, a small strong­hold ex­ist­ed near the es­tu­ary of the Za­drna Riv­er to the Bóbr Riv­er. It was prob­a­bly a wood­en watch­tow­er erect­ed by one of the Si­le­sian princes to pro­tect the trade route lead­ing from Bo­he­mia to Si­le­sia. In 1419-36, the Hus­sites con­quered and burned the town of Ka­mien­na Gó­ra... more

3.09.2022 ... castle in Ostróda

We do not know the ex­act date when Ostró­da cas­tle was found­ed. Pre­sum­ably, the first for­ti­fied knight's manor func­tioned here al­ready be­fore 1270, play­ing a strate­gic role as a Teu­ton­ic bor­der watch­tow­er and a base for fur­ther con­quests of lands in­hab­it­ed by Prus­sian tribes. It was cer­tain­ly al­so an ad­min­is­tra­tive, eco­nom­ic and mil­i­tary cen­ter... more

20.08.2022 ... castle in Dąbrówno

In the ear­ly Mid­dle Ages, these lands be­longed to the Sasin tribe, and there was a wood­en Prus­sian set­tle­ment on the site of to­day's town of Dą­bró­wno. In the sec­ond half of the 13th cen­tu­ry this set­tle­ment was cap­tured by Teu­ton­ic Knights, who erect­ed a wood-earth watch­tow­er known as Il­ien­burg. In years 1314-26, on the ini­tia­tive of the com­man­der... more

13.08.2022 ... castle in Rabsztyn

Lack of any his­tor­i­cal records makes it im­pos­si­ble to de­ter­mine the ex­act date when Rab­sz­tyn cas­tle was built and who found­ed it. Ac­cord­ing to the most pop­u­lar the­o­ry, the strong­hold was erect­ed by a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the knight­ly fam­i­ly of To­por­czyk from Mo­ra­wi­ca. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, it is linked to the in­vest­ment ac­tiv­i­ty of Si­le­sian duke Hen­ry the Beard­ed... more

31.07.2022 ... palace in Ołdrzychowice Kłodzkie

A set­tle­ment called Ulri­ci Vil­la, lo­cat­ed near the trade route known as the Salt Road lead­ing from Bo­hemia to Kra­ków, pro­ba­bly ex­ist­ed here as ear­ly as the 12th cen­tu­ry, but the first men­tion of it dates on­ly from 1327. In 1342 the vil­lage be­longed to Kłodz­ko head of coun­ty Han­ke Knob­lauchs­dorf, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Kłodz­ko line of the old Meis­sen fam­i­ly... more

5.07.2022 ... castle in Świebodzin

The cas­tle in Świe­bo­dzin is be­lieved to have been erect­ed at the end of the 13th or be­gin­ning of the 14th cen­tu­ry, per­haps at the same time that the vil­lage gained town rights. The first men­tion of the strong­hold dates back to 1329, list­ing ci­vi­tas ad cas­trum Swi­bzin as the prop­er­ty of Hen­ry IV, Duke of Ża­gań. From 1333, the town be­longed to Poland... more

25.06.2022 ... castle in Wojnowice

In the me­dieval vil­lage of Wo­no­wicz, some sort of for­ti­fied knight's res­i­dence ex­ist­ed in the 14th cen­tu­ry, pos­si­bly built by Jo­hann Skopp or by the ear­li­er own­ers of this land - broth­ers Tyl and Ber­thold von Zin­dal. It was prob­a­bly a sim­ple two-sto­ry res­i­den­tial tow­er, typ­i­cal of the for­ti­fied con­struc­tions of that pe­ri­od in Si­le­sia... more

16.06.2022 ... castle in Kwidzyn

The first Teu­ton­ic stronghold in the area was a wood­en watch­tow­er called St. Ma­rien­wer­der or In­su­la San­cte Ma­rie, found­ed in the vicin­i­ty of pre­sent-day No­wa Wieś Kwi­dzyń­ska short­ly af­ter the Teu­ton­ic Knights be­gan their cru­sades against pa­gans in Po­me­za­nia. How­ev­er, these for­ti­fi­ca­tions weren't im­pres­sive and al­ready in 1242 the Prus­sian troops ... more

5.06.2022 ... castle in Sochaczew

The first, still wood­en-earth for­ti­fi­ca­tion may have been erect­ed here in the 12th cen­tu­ry. It served as the cap­i­tal of the cas­tel­lany, one of the main cen­ters of state ad­min­is­tra­tion in the then Ma­zo­vian dis­trict, which in­di­cates the men­tion of a So­cha­czew castel­lan named Fa­lan­ta. The set­tle­ment was ir­re­triev­ably de­stroyed in 1286... more

26.05.2022 ... monastery of the Poor Clares in Stary Sącz

The town of Sta­ry Sącz, found­ed in 1257 by the duchess Kin­ga of Cra­cow and San­do­mierz, in the sec­ond half of the 13th cen­tu­ry was the most im­por­tant ad­min­is­tra­tive cen­ter in the en­tire re­gion. Kinga re­ceived these lands from her hus­band Bo­le­sław V as a mar­riage dowry, and when he died in 1279, she gave up her prince­ly rule and moved to Sta­ry Sącz... more

14.05.2022 ... castle in Oporów

A doc­u­ment from 1363 men­tions Bo­gu­sław of Opo­rów of Su­li­ma coat of arms, ca­non of Gnie­zno and arch­dea­con, the own­er of a wood­en manor that had prob­a­bly been erect­ed in the first half of the 14th cen­tu­ry by his fa­ther, Ste­fan of Opo­rów. When Bo­gu­sław died, Opo­rów es­tate was given to his neph­ew Mi­ko­łaj, cham­ber­lain and lat­er voivode of Łę­czy­ca... more

10.04.2022 ... Mirów palace in Książ Wielki

The palace in Książ Wiel­ki was built by the bish­op of Cra­cow and the own­er of the town, Piotr Mysz­kow­ski, coat of arms Ja­strzę­biec, a close friend of the fa­mous Pol­ish Re­nais­sance po­et Jan Ko­cha­now­ski. Con­struc­tion works were car­ried out in 1582-95 un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the roy­al ar­chi­tect San­ti Guc­ci, au­thor of the re­con­struc­tion of cas­tles in Piń­czów... more

24.03.2022 ... Sarny palace in Ścinawka Górna

In the Mid­dle Ages, in the part of the vil­lage called Ober-Stei­ne there was a small cas­tle, prob­a­bly a res­i­den­tial tow­er. It is pos­si­ble that the relics of this Goth­ic strong­hold are hid­den in the cel­lars of the lat­er palace and in the ground floor of the gate build­ing, al­though no re­search has ev­er been done here to con­firm this as­sump­tion. The first known manor house... more

13.03.2022 ... castle Ogrodzieniec

It is prob­a­ble that dur­ing the reign of prince Bo­le­sław Krzy­wo­usty there was a wood­en cas­tle called Wil­cza Szczę­ka (Wolf’s Jaw). It pos­si­by could have some mil­i­tary im­por­tance on the bor­der be­tween Less­er Poland and Sile­sia and was prob­a­bly de­stroyed by the Ta­tars dur­ing their in­va­sion of Poland in 1241. The term Ogro­dzie­niec comes from this pe­ri­od... more

17.02.2022 ... castle in Rybnica

Not much is known about the ori­gins and func­tion­ing of the cas­tle in the Mid­dle Ages. The pre­vail­ing opin­ion among his­to­ri­ans is that the con­struc­tion of the brick strong­hold may have been com­mis­sioned in the 1360s by Em­per­or Char­les IV of Lux­em­burg, who was to pay a short vis­it here in 1365. The vil­lage was then owned or leased by Ni­co­las von Reyb­nicz... more

5.02.2022 ... castle in Chęciny

The old­est back­ground in­for­ma­tion about the cas­tle in Chę­ci­ny comes from a doc­u­ment is­sued in 1306 by San­do­mierz Duke Wła­dys­ław Ło­kie­tek, in which he promis­es to give the bish­op of Cra­cow cas­trum Chan­cin to­geth­er with the sur­round­ing vil­lages. Tak­ing in­to ac­count the con­tent of this state­ment and the date of its is­suance, it can be as­sumed that... more

7.01.2022 ... castle in Międzyrzecz

The old­est and most im­por­tant stronghold on the west­ern bor­der­lands of Poland was prob­a­bly erect­ed in the 9th cen­tu­ry. The fort­ress of Me­si­ri­ci is men­tioned for the first time in the chron­i­cle of the Bish­op of Merse­burg, Thi­et­mar, who de­scribed the ex­pe­di­tion of the Em­per­or Hein­rich II der Hei­li­ge go­ing to war with pol­ish duke Bo­le­sław Chro­bry... more

28.11.2021 ... castle in Ratno Dolne

Prob­a­bly, al­ready in the first half of the 14th cen­tu­ry, there was a knight's cas­tle in Rat­no, which was sup­pos­ed­ly built by the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Sile­sian fam­i­ly de Mus­sin (Mosch). This small, pos­si­bly still wood­en strong­hold be­came in 1388 the prop­er­ty of Kłodz­ko bur­graves be­long­ing to the von Pan­nwitz, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of an an­cient Sor­bian fam­i­ly... more

18.11.2021 ... castle in Radzyń Chełmiński

In the ear­ly Mid­dle Ages, on the trade route lead­ing from Gru­dziądz to Gol­ub a small wood­en cas­tle in the vicin­i­ty of the pre­sent-day Ra­dzyń ex­ist­ed, who was prob­a­bly in­hab­it­ed by pa­gan Prus­sians from the Po­meza­ni­an tribe. In the 12th cen­tu­ry, the vil­lage of Ra­sin func­tioned in this place, and next to it the cas­tle be­long­ing to the Ma­zo­vian voi­vode Krys­tyn... more

13.11.2021 ... fortalice in Sobków

Old­er names of the vil­lage, now called Sobków, were Ni­da, Ni­da Frykacz­ka and Ni­da Ry­ter­s­ka. The first men­tion of a knight's res­i­dence here dates back to the first half of the 16th cen­tu­ry and refers to a stone manor house, owned by Ra­fał Ry­ter­ski, that was de­stroyed by fire. In 1563 Sta­ni­sław So­bek of Su­łów, coat of arms Broch­wicz... more

3.11.2021 ... castle in Prochowice

His­to­ri­ans usu­al­ly be­lieve that the founder of the cas­tle in Pro­cho­wi­ce was Iko von Parch­witz, pa­lat­i­nus of Leg­ni­ca and com­pan­ion of Duke Bo­le­sław Ro­gat­ka. Some of them, how­ev­er, doubt the ex­is­tence of a brick cas­tle in the 13th cen­tu­ry, point­ing to the ini­tia­tive of Ste­phan von Parch­witz - grand­son of the men­tioned Iko, who in 1305-42 con­trolled the town... more

23.10.2021 ... castle in Poznań

In the first cen­turies of our state, the town of Poz­nań de­vel­oped on the right bank of the War­ta Riv­er, close to the for­ti­fied seat of the prince, formed in the 10th cen­tu­ry in the north-west­ern part of the cathe­dral is­land. The old­est wood­en cas­tle was re­peat­ed­ly de­stroyed and re­built, and it prob­a­bly end­ed in the sec­ond half of the 13th cen­tu­ry... more

9.10.2021 ... castle Sobień

The ori­gins of the cas­tle re­main un­known. Ac­cord­ing to a com­mon opin­ion (main­ly prop­a­gat­ed by older books), the founder of the fort­ress might have been Ka­zi­mierz Wiel­ki, but nei­ther Jan of Czarn­ków, who lived in those times, nor Jan Dłu­gosz, who lived in the times of the first Ja­giel­lons, men­tion it among the in­vest­ments made by this king... more

29.09.2021 ... castle in Ossolin

It is like­ly that al­ready in the 14th cen­tu­ry a brick cas­tle ex­ist­ed in this place, which was built by an un­known rep­re­sen­ta­tive of To­por­czyk knight­ly fam­i­ly. Per­haps the founder of the strong­hold was castel­lan of Wi­śli­ca Jan To­pór called Ow­ca, ac­cord­ing to the tra­di­tion a pro­to­plast of the great Os­so­liń­ski fam­i­ly, who was killed dur­ing the fights with his neigh­bors... more

14.09.2021 ... castle in Sosnowiec

The old­est pre­served men­tion of set­tle­ment Sied­lecz dates back to 1361. It men­tions a do­na­tion of the lo­cal knight's grange by Abra­ham of Go­szy­ce and his son Ma­rek, coat of arms Gryf, to San­do­mierz prov­ince gov­er­nor Ot­to of Pil­cza, coat of arms To­pór (in re­turn, Abra­ham re­ceived the vil­lage Wi­ta­no­wi­ce near Oświę­cim). The doc­u­ment al­so states that...more

22.08.2021 ... Benedictine abbey in Tyniec

Ac­cord­ing to tra­di­tion, the Bene­dic­tine Abbey in Ty­niec near Cra­cow was found­ed in 1044 by Ka­zi­mierz Od­no­wi­ciel, son of the Pol­ish king Miesz­ko II and Princess Ri­che­za of Lor­raine. This date is giv­en by the Pol­ish me­dieval chron­i­cler Jan Dłu­gosz, but we do not know where he took his knowl­edge from, hence the dis­pute among his­to­ri­ans...more

22.07.2021 ... romantic castle on Góreckie Lake

This small neo-goth­ic palace on an is­land in the mid­dle of a pic­turesque lake was found­ed and prob­a­bly per­son­al­ly de­signed by Ty­tus Dzia­łyń­ski, the own­er of Kór­nik and Ko­na­rze­wo. Ro­man­tic build­ing was a gift from Ty­tus to his sis­ter Klau­dy­na Dzia­łyń­ska and her hus­band Ber­nard Po­toc­ki on the oc­ca­sion of their wed­ding...more

14.07.2021 ... castle in Wieliczka

The cas­tle and the town are strong­ly con­nect­ed with rock salt ex­plo­ration car­ried out in this re­gion of Ma­ło­pol­ska. The first traces of this ac­tiv­i­ty can be found in the 13th cen­tu­ry mine shaft lo­cat­ed with­in the me­dieval cas­tle court­yard. Ac­cord­ing to tra­di­tion, the founder of the cas­tle was Duke of Cra­cow, Hen­ryk IV Pro­bus, who, soon af­ter...more