Prison Tower in Głogówek

At the very bottom of the tower was an unlit dungeon with a chain fixed to the wall – and that is where the Prison Tower in Głogówek got its name. This square brick tower next to the Castle Gate is one of the few surviving parts of the town's medieval fortifications. Today it houses the Regional Museum, where you can see the former cells and an ethnographic collection.

History: walls, Hussites and the Oppersdorffs

The earliest record of Głogówek's defences dates from 1379, when one of the town gates was described as newly built. The walls, about 1.6 m thick, enclosed a medieval town of 11 ha, entered through three gates: the Koźle Gate, the Castle Gate and the Water Gate. In 1428 the Hussite army of Prokop the Great approached the town, but Głogówek did not have to fight, because Duke Bolko V went over to their side. In 1595 the Głogówek estate passed to George II von Oppersdorff, and at that time the tower was raised by one storey. In 1643, during the Thirty Years' War, the town was taken by the Swedes. Most of the walls were demolished around 1870; fragments survived, along with the Castle Gate and this tower.

The tower's architecture

The tower stands about 15 m east of the Castle Gate passage. It is square in plan, about 8.3 m per side, and its medieval part is about 20 m high. The walls get thinner as they rise, from about 2.5 m at ground level to less than one and a half metres near the top. Above the dungeon were five storeys used by the guards, for defence and as storerooms. The original entrance was on the third storey – straight from the wall-walk on the town walls. On the outer, northern side, the corners are braced by two diagonal buttresses about 8.5 m high.

What to see

• The former prison cells, including a room that centuries ago served as a torture chamber.
• The ethnographic display on the everyday life of former inhabitants of Głogówek and the surrounding area, with "Granny's Room" (Izba u Starki) – a kitchen furnished as in the interwar years.
• Outside: pointed-arch windows, traces of blind arcades and the buttresses on the north side.
• The neighbouring Castle Gate, the only surviving town gate, though remodelled in later centuries.

Interesting facts

Głogówek's museum has a long tradition: around 1900 the historian and collector Baron Ernst von Woikowsky-Biedau assembled the first collection. In 1932 a museum opened in the Castle Gate and ran there until 1945. The present Regional Museum was founded on 22 July 1975 on the initiative of the Friends of Głogówek Society; for years it also housed a collection of more than 80 oil paintings by Jan Cybis, which returned to Opole in 1993.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Monday to Friday, 8:00–16:00; at weekends visits are possible by prior arrangement (tel. +48 77 43 73 500 or +48 785 272 890). Museum staff also offer guided walks around town with entry to the historic buildings – 1.5–2 hours, booked in advance. The tower itself takes about 30–45 minutes; expect stairs, as this is a medieval tower. Address: ul. Słowackiego 1, right by the Castle Gate leading to the Oppersdorff castle.