CASTLE RUIN IN SOCHACZEW

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he 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 (1221). The set­tle­ment was ir­re­triev­ably de­stroyed in 1286 by the troops of the Ruthe­ni­an Duke Vla­di­mir Va­syl­ko­vich sup­port­ed by the Lith­ua­ni­ans, so it func­tioned for lit­tle more than a cen­tu­ry. It was on­ly on the ini­tia­tive of one of the Ma­zo­vian dukes: Sie­mo­wit II (d. 1345) or Sie­mo­wit III (d. 1381), that a Goth­ic cas­tle was erect­ed on the grounds of the for­mer wood­en strong­hold. Its ex­is­tence in the mid­dle of the 14th cen­tu­ry is con­firmed by a doc­u­ment from De­cem­ber 27, 1355, which lists the brick cas­tles in Ma­zo­via, among them ca­strum in So­cha­czew.

RUINS BEFORE AND AFTER REVITALIZATION

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he oldest men­tion of So­cha­czew as a town dates back to 1323, al­though it is pos­si­ble that it was lo­cat­ed as ear­ly as the end of the 13th cen­tu­ry. Dur­ing the reign of the dukes of Ma­zo­via, it played an im­por­tant role as the mil­i­tary, ad­min­is­tra­tive and po­lit­i­cal cen­ter of the re­gion, which is ev­i­denced by the fact that it was here that the con­ven­tion of no­ble­men and dukes took place in 1377, dur­ing which the cus­tom­ary laws bind­ing in the whole re­gion were co­di­fied. In 1410, at the foot of the cas­tle the roy­al army of Wła­dy­sław Ja­gieł­ło marched, and prob­a­bly al­so stopped here, on their way to war with the Teu­ton­ic Or­der. Four years lat­er, al­though not in the cas­tle but in the town square, on the fourth an­niver­sary of the Bat­tle of Grun­wald, the king's de­puty Za­wi­sza Czar­ny (d. 1428) solemn­ly de­clared war on the Teu­ton­ic Knights (known as the Hunger War).

RUIN ON PAINTING BY KAZIMIERZ STRONCZYŃSKI, 1850

DRAWING BY F. BRZOZOWSKI, 1882

THE CASTLE IN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

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n 1476 Kaz­imierz Ja­giel­lończyk (d. 1492) in­cor­po­rat­ed a part of Ma­zo­via with the town of So­cha­czew to the King­dom of Poland and the act of in­cor­po­ra­tion was signed just in the cas­tle in So­cha­czew. From then on, the strong­hold no longer served as a ducal res­i­dence, but as the seat of a cas­tle star­ost with a chan­cellery and ar­chive, as well as a roy­al sta­tion serv­ing the ruler in his nu­mer­ous trips around the coun­try. In peace­time, the cas­tle was in­hab­it­ed by a small crew, called cas­tri fam­i­ly, which con­sist­ed of, apart from the starost and his deputy, a small con­tin­gent of mi­li­tia, a key-keep­er, a gate-keep­er or a door­keep­er, night watch­men, a cook and a wa­ter-car­ri­er. Six­teenth-cen­tu­ry doc­u­ments al­so men­tion the chap­lain and the bak­er, who worked in the cas­tle bak­ery but lived in the near­by vil­lage of Czer­won­ka.

THE RUINS IN 1909

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l­ready at the be­gin­ning of the 16th cen­tu­ry the con­di­tion of the cas­tle left much to be de­sired, which could be at­tribut­ed to the un­sta­ble slope of the cas­tle hill, or per­haps by the lack of prop­er care by its hosts. This is ev­i­denced by the de­scrip­tion of the cas­tle from be­fore 1509, which states that its ex­te­ri­or walls, blanked, of brick, de­stroyed... Af­ter the death of Ja­kub Szy­dło­wiec­ki (d. 1509) the sta­ro­sty was tak­en o­ver by Krzy­sztof Szy­dło­wiec­ki (d. 1532), the Grand Chan­cel­lor and Voi­vode of Cra­cow, who al­so held the rare ti­tle of Count of Szy­dło­wiec. He re­paired the cas­tle walls, ren­o­vat­ed some of the rooms, and may have al­so es­tab­lished a roy­al chapel. At the same time, earth­en ram­parts adapt­ed to the use of fire­arms were built around the cas­tle. Lat­er, the starosts of So­cha­czew were, among oth­ers: Ra­fał Cy­bul­ski coat of arms Praw­dzic (d. 1567), Piotr Szcza­wiń­ski coat of arms Praw­dzic (d. ca. 1594), and Sta­ni­sław Tar­ło coat of arms To­pór (d. 1599). Ap­par­ent­ly, how­ev­er, they did not care enough about the cas­tle, be­cause by the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry it was in a very bad con­di­tion.

DESTRUCTION OF THE NORTHERN SLOPE OF THE CASTLE ESCARPMENT, PHOTO FROM THE 1920S

RECONSTRUCTION WORKS ON THE WESTERN SLOPE, 1936

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n 1608 the north­ern part of the cas­tle col­lapsed as a result of a land­slide on the north-eastern slope of the hill. The dam­age was so ex­ten­sive that King Zyg­munt III Va­sa or­dered the then star­ost Sta­ni­sław Ra­dzie­jow­ski (coat of arms Ju­no­sza, d. 1637) to de­mol­ish the me­dieval walls and re­build the en­tire struc­ture in the Re­nais­sance or ear­ly Baroque style. The Pol­ish king was keen on this in­vest­ment, as he prob­a­bly planned to use the new­ly built cas­tle for a roy­al sta­tion or res­i­dence, which would host for­eign en­voys go­ing to War­saw. How­ev­er, with time - per­haps due to the king's fi­nan­cial prob­lems - the en­thu­si­asm for the pro­ject waned, and the con­struc­tion work last­ed a very long time and was even­tu­al­ly nev­er com­plet­ed. In 1638 the height of the walls reached on­ly above the first floor and the en­tire build­ing was cov­ered with a pro­vi­sion­al roof.

SOCHACZEW CASTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XVII CENTURY, CONCEPT AUTHOR: Ł. POPOWSKI, DRAWN BY B. SZUSTKIEWICZ

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n 1655 the Swedes in­vad­ed and burnt down the cas­tle, caus­ing ir­repara­ble dam­age to the doc­u­ments and archives lo­cat­ed here. From then on, it re­mained ru­ined for more than cen­tu­ry and a half. It was not un­til 1789-90 that star­ost Ka­zi­mierz Wa­lic­ki (coat of arms La­da, d. 1795) man­aged to re­build it and put the chan­cellery and ar­chives there. This new build­ing served its pur­pose for on­ly four years, be­cause af­ter the out­break of the Koś­ciusz­ko Up­ris­ing in 1794 it was de­stroyed by the Prus­sian ar­tillery. Its re­con­struc­tion was nev­er un­der­tak­en again, and the aban­doned walls col­lapsed or were de­mol­ished o­ver time.

CASTLE HILL IN THE 1960S AND TODAY

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he cas­tle hill is sit­u­at­ed south of the town, from which it is sep­a­rat­ed by a nar­row gorge. From the south and east, a deep moat was dug around the hill (seen in the pho­tos above), which made ac­cess to the cas­tle very dif­fi­cult. The top of the hill was oc­cu­pied by a brick cas­tle, which had a plan sim­i­lar to a trape­zoid with sides of 35x30 m and a to­tal area of about 1200 m2. The build­ings were dom­i­nat­ed by two tow­ers: the east­ern rect­an­gu­lar tow­er with sides of 4.5x7.5 m and the north­ern tow­er, whose plan and spa­tial lay­out is un­known. Pre­sum­ably, the tow­ers orig­i­nal­ly mea­sured no more than 5 to 8 me­ters in height, and were not raised un­til the 16th cen­tu­ry.

HYPOTHETICAL PLAN OF A XV-CENTURY CASTLE ACCORDING TO Ł. ADAMKOWSKI: 1. NORTH TOWER, 2. EAST TOWER
3. ROYAL HOUSE (MISSING ON PLAN), 4. OLD HOUSE (MISSING ON PLAN), 5. OLD GATE, 6. NEW GATE

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t the end of the 15th cen­tu­ry two rep­re­sen­ta­tive res­i­den­tial build­ings stood on the cas­tle grounds: the roy­al house and the old house. The roy­al house was ad­ja­cent to the south­ern wall. It con­sist­ed of three sto­ries with food stor­age and cel­lars and (above) spa­cious liv­ing quar­ters for the ruler. The roy­al house was con­nect­ed to the west with the two-sto­ry old house, equipped with a cham­ber and a prison on the ground floor. Above them, the starost's of­fices were ar­ranged. The north­ern part of the cas­tle orig­i­nal­ly in­clud­ed the afore­men­tioned tow­er, and next to it an en­trance gate to the court­yard, which was prob­a­bly moved to the east­ern tow­er at the end of the 15th cen­tu­ry and pre­ced­ed by a long bridge.

VISUALIZATION OF A GOTHIC CASTLE IN SOCHACZEW BY JAN KANTY GUMOWSKI, 1938

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t the be­gin­ning of the 16th cen­tu­ry, a build­ing called the new Szy­dło­wiec­ki's house was erect­ed in the north­ern part of the cas­tle. Its ground floor housed staff quar­ters, and the first floor - had sev­er­al rooms of a res­i­den­tial char­ac­ter. The cas­tle ar­se­nal was prob­a­bly lo­cat­ed in the east­ern tow­er. San­i­tary func­tions were per­formed by wood­en la­trines, in­stalled out­side the south­ern and west­ern wall. The cas­tle was al­so equipped with a bath­house, built on stilts by the riv­er. How­ev­er, it nev­er had its own well, so the wa­ter had to be de­liv­ered here by a wa­ter-car­ri­er.

THE WESTERN WING, BUILT ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MEDIEVAL 'OLD HOUSE'

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rob­a­bly at the turn of the 15th and 16th cen­tu­ry two ram­parts were built to im­prove the de­fen­sive sys­tem of the cas­tle and to adapt it to the use of fire­arms. The main prob­lem, how­ev­er, con­cerned the in­suf­fi­cient sta­bil­i­ty of the ground on the cas­tle hill. It caused its slopes to slip, which in turn caused the brick walls to crack, re­sult­ing in a build­ing col­lapse (1608). The farm­stead, sit­u­at­ed out­side the cas­tle walls, served as a place for the cas­tle crew. It con­tained sta­bles for up to 120 hors­es, work­shops, tim­ber yards and a kitchen for the ser­vants. The vast area next to the farm­stead was used for pas­tures, or­chards and gar­dens.

TREASURY

REMAINS OF THE WEST WING

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t the be­gin­ning of the 17th cen­tu­ry the north-east­ern part of the cas­tle col­lapsed as a re­sult of a land­slide. Con­se­quent­ly, the old cas­tle was de­mol­ished and a three-winged man­sion raised on its foun­da­tions. Its most rep­re­sen­ta­tive part was the west­ern wing, which housed the so-called din­ing room. The nar­row­er oth­er two wings ac­com­mo­dat­ed rooms of low­er rank. On the foun­da­tion of the east­ern tow­er a new oc­tag­o­nal tow­er was erect­ed, which took o­ver the func­tion of the cas­tle chapel. The man­sion had a wall no more than 1 me­ter thick. The en­trance to the court­yard was sit­u­at­ed in the east­ern wing, next to the tow­er, and led o­ver the moat on a bridge made of oak tim­bers.

PLAN AND VIEW OF THE RUINS: 1. HALLWAY, 2. CHAPEL, 3., 4., 5. CHAMBERS, 6. DINING ROOM,
7. SMALL HALLWAY, 8. TREASURY, 9. SECOND HALLWAY WITH STAIRS

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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here are vir­tu­al­ly no re­mains of the me­dieval cas­tle. The ru­ins we can see to­day on the hill are relics of a manor house from the late 18th cen­tu­ry, which have lit­tle to do with de­fen­sive ar­chi­tec­ture any­more, al­though part of the walls may date back to the ear­ly 17th cen­tu­ry. The lay­out of all three cas­tle wings and the moat, which clear­ly cuts off the steep hill from its sur­round­ings, is eas­i­ly iden­ti­fi­able. In the first decade of the 21st cen­tu­ry, ar­chae­o­log­i­cal work was car­ried out on the cas­tle grounds. As a re­sult, pre­vi­ous­ly un­known foun­da­tions were un­cov­ered, which may have been a rel­ic of the north­ern gate. A large amount of pot­tery, tiles and frag­ments of ev­ery­day items were al­so found. Then the hill got re­vi­tal­ized and de­vel­oped for tourism. The ug­ly am­phithe­ater lo­cat­ed at the foot of the hill was de­mol­ished and re­placed with a new one, which is ug­ly too.

OLD AND NEW AMPHITHEATER AT THE FOOT OF THE CASTLE HILL

Free admission 24 hours a day.

There is a ban on bringing dogs to the castle hill.

Flying (up to a height of 120 m) near the ruins can be done with­out res­tric­tions.

AT THE CASTLE IN SOCHACZEW

GETTING THERE

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he castle ruin is located on Ro­mu­al­da Trau­gut­ta and Pod­zam­cze streets, a few hun­dred me­ters south of the Mar­ket Square. It is about 2 km from the rail­way sta­tion.

The most convenient way to park your car is in a small park­ing lot on Pod­zam­cze Street or sim­ply on the street (Pod­zam­cze). In 2021 the park­ing was free.

Bicycles can be left at the parking lot on Pod­zam­cze Street. You can al­so bring them in along the path that goes up the hill (no need to climb the stairs).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. M. Brykowska: Ochrona zabytkowych ruin – problemy badawcze i projektowe na przykładzie zamku...
2. J. Gula, R. Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski: Zamek w Sochaczewie. Z otchłani wieków.
3. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
4. P. Lasek: Początki zamków na Mazowszu w świetle nowszych badań
5. Ł. Popowski: Zamek w Sochaczewie
6. A.R. Sypek Zamki i warownie ziemi mazowieckiej
7. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019

Castles nearby:
Brochów - the fortified church from the 14th century, 12 km
Łowicz - relics of the bishop's castle, 28 km
Radziejowice - relics of the fortified manor house from the 15th century, currently a palace, 40 km
Sobota - relics of the castle from the 15th century, currently a neo-Gothic palace, 47 km
Oporów - the Gothic castle from the 15th century, 51 km
Płock - the castle of the mazovian dukes from the 14th century, 57 km

text: 2022
photographs: 2005, 2019, 2021
© Jacek Bednarek