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O
ld castles. Pearls of the Middle Ages. Witnesses of the past, romantic and full of mysteries, have been attracting human eyesight and arousing emotions for a long time. Regardless of whether they were rising on inaccessible hills or occupying lowland meadows among muds or river floodplains, they invariably influenced human imagination. Some were introduced to the irrational world, so different from the everyday and orderly lives of ordinary people. For others, it brought to mind memories of the splendour of the collapsed walls and castle buildings, which used to be either powerful royal fortresses or the seats of excellent knightly families of historical Poland.
T
oday, these buildings are a material legacy of architecture, a proof of the richness of the past, a reason for great pride. Often ruined, abandoned, functionally useless, they now play the role of unquestionable distinguishing features of the cultural landscape, anchors of memory strengthening the feeling of local, regional and national identity. Some of these wonderful mementoes of the past have been taken care of by the Polish State or its citizens, some of them live in the consciousness of millions, they become a destination for thousands and a symbol without which it would be difficult to imagine the historical image of our country. Others were less fortunate. Deprived of care, shamefully hidden among the greenery of old parks and gardens, they stand destroyed and forgotten, jealously guarding secrets that few of us have ever known.
That website is trying to change it.
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T
he publishing market, rich in castle literature and numerous websites and publications, testify to the great social interest in this type of topics. This does not surprise me. Castles and their ruins have ceased to be the domain of historians or groups of enthusiasts. Today, they occupy an exposed places on maps and in guidebooks, becoming the destination of increasing numbers of tourists rediscovering the charms of beautiful Polish landscapes.
P
reparing the content I wanted to meet your expectations. However, I do not want to copy the solutions already existing - breaking with general scheme treating the subject in an encyclopaedic way and requiring the reader to prepare in a given field, I want to combine the care for the preservation of historical truth with functionality important for understanding by a wide audience, so that the content published here can meet the expectations of the reader at different ages, regardless of his knowledge and education. Preparing this webside I feel responsible for shaping attitudes and developing histori&cal consciousness.
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I
can assure you that you will not find here, dear reader, mindlessly copied books. I used literature, of course, without it this website would never have been created, but I tried to enrich the content of many publications with information acquired from experience. Apart from historical facts and dates, short biographies and basics of architecture, I decided to present the current situation of the castles, their legal status, possibilities of visiting them, curiosities, legends and additional attractions or lack thereof, as well as a brief description of how to reach them. I have personally at least once visited each of the castles described on this website, which should guarantee satisfactory standard of reliability, although of course no one is infallible. If you come across a mistake or misrepresentation, I ask for understanding - I also have the right to make a mistake.
F
inally, I would like to make it clear that all descriptions on this website are subjective. I am not a historian and I do not intend to pretend to be an authority. The purpose of this publication is to interest you in the subject matter, encourage you to visit the polish castles and - a little bit - to satisfy my ego. I sincerely invite you to reading.
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13.02.2021 ... Grodziec castle
On steep basalt hill, where the majestic castle is now located, in the early Middle Ages there was a stronghold belonging to the Slavic Bobrzanie tribe. The first mention about Grodziec dates back to 23 April 1155. This was the date of the papal bull issued by Pope Hadrian IV for the bishopric of Wrocław...more
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21.01.2021 ... Konin-Gosławice
Gosławice village was the first time mentioned in documents dated 1280, when it was donated to the Cistercian abbey in Ląd by Prince Przemyslaw II. Only three years later the land was bought from the Cistercians by Archbishop of Gniezno and from then until the middle of the 14th century the village belonged to the Church...more
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9.01.2021 ... Ostrów Lednicki
The oldest traces of human presence on the largest of the five islands of the post-glacial lake Lednica date back to the Stone Age and are probably related to the existence of a settlement inhabited by Neolithic hunters and shepherds. In the Bronze Age, this land was populated by a community linked to the Lusatian culture...more
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28.12.2020 ... castle Czocha
In the early Middle Ages, a wooden fortified stronghold functioned here. The first mention about this place comes from 1241, identifying it as a border point called Mons Tyzow. The history of the brick castle begins in the middle of the 13th century, probably because of the Czech king Václav I Přemyslid, known as the One-Eyed...more
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13.12.2020 ... castle Homole
It is believed that in the early Middle Ages a wooden-earth Slavic stronghold operated on Gomola hill. And although its existence has not yet been verified by archaeologists, the arguments for such a version of history can be provided by its convenient location on a hill by trade route connecting Silesia with Bohemia...more
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29.11.2020 ... castle in Gniew
The building of brick castle began in 1283, shortly after the Duke of Gdansk Mściwoj II donated the land of Gniew to Teutonic Order. For the friars, it was the first territorial bridgehead on the left bank of Vistula River, so they immediately began to fortify these very easily conquered areas...more
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13.11.2020 ... castle in Międzylesie
The oldest known fortified settlement in Medilese was probably established in the second half of the 9th century. Initially, it was a wooden building, which was replaced by a brick castle in the first half of the 14th century. This probably took place after the local properties was bought out from the Cistercians...more
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30.09.2020 ... castle in Świny
The history of settlement in Świny dates back at least to the 11th century, when a wooden fortified castle was erected here to guard the trade road to Bohemia. Possibly it replaced an older, early medieval hamlet, which, according to some researchers, was supposed to be located in the eastern part of castle hill until it was destroyed by Czech troops...more
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7.09.2020 ... castle Szczerba
History of the castle remains a mystery to a large extent, as few source documents have been preserved about it. The founder of the castle and the time when it was erected is also unknown. According to legends, already during the reign of polish king Boleslaw Chrobry there was a small wooden stronghold here...more
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30.08.2020 ... castle in Niemodlin
The origins of the castle in Niemodlin, which is currently one of the largest and best preserved medieval residences in the Opole region, date back to the period before 1228, that is before the handover of the settlement by Kazimierz I to Klemens Gryfita as a compensation for the financial effort made by Gryfita...more
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11.07.2020 ... castle in Piotrków Trybunalski
No documents have survived to the present day that would clearly indicate the existence of a medieval royal seat in Piotrków. However, we can learn from other sources that perhaps in castrum Pyotrkow, still wooden and remembering the times of Casimir the Great, knightly congregations were held, Władysław Jagiełło issued royal acts...more
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12.06.2020 ... castle in Sanok
Sanok is mentioned for the first time in Ipatiewski Kodeks in 1150 where occupation of Czerwieńskie Grody by the Hungarian king Gejza II was reported. Its existence was recorded once again in 1205 on the occasion of a meeting held here between the Hungarian king Andrew II and Anna Eufrozyna, the widow of prince Roman Halicki...more
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23.05.2020 ... castle Dybów
The victory of united Polish-Lithuanian forces in the Battle of Grunwald permanently stopped the territorial expansion of Teutonic Order. It did not, however, weaken aggressive policy of the Order, who, feeling safe in their castles, carried out numerous brief invasions, clearly avoiding confrontations in the open field...more
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19.04.2020 ... castle in Toruń
The story about the fact, that in 1228 Konrad Mazowiecki invited the Teutonic Order to Poland, was probably heard by every child. Few people know, however, that the Teutonic Knights' troop, which then came to settle the Chelmno Land, devastated by the Prussians, consisted of only two knights and a small group of soldiers!...more
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2.04.2020 ... castle in Siedlęcin
The massive silhouette of the Gothic tower in little Siedlecin village has already become a permanent feature of the Western Sudetenland historical architecture. Its excellent condition and unique character of the wall paintings decorating its interior make it one of the most recognizable elements of the historical legacy of Jelenia Góra region...more
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21.03.2020 ... castle in Muszynia
Historians and researchers of the Middle Ages interpret the beginnings of defense-related architecture in Muszyna differently. According to tradition, in this one of the oldest settlements in the Podkarpacie region, the fortified castle was built by Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek or only as a result of royal foundation of Casimir the Great...more
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11.03.2020 ... castle Książ
According to one of the many popular legends referring to the history of the castle Ksiaz in Lower Silesia, the first stronghold in this place was built in the middle of the 10th century by a knight named Funkenstein. When he was still a young boy, he was supposed to give the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Birdman, a sack of coal dug in the forest...more
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19.02.2020 ... towers in Rakowice Wielkie
In small Lower Silesian village of Rakowice there have been at least two manor farms since late Middle Ages - a royal and a town one, with their administrators' seats in small residential towers. The older of these buildings, known in literature as the town tower, was probably built after 1491 by Georg von Zedlitz...more
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