Old towns & squares

Market Square in Siewierz

Siewierz received its town charter around 1276 and for centuries was the capital of its own duchy ruled by the bishops of Kraków. The market square, laid out at the town’s founding, still keeps the size of the medieval place — today voivodeship road 790 crosses it, which lends the spot a slightly prosaic character, but none of its history is diminished.

An obelisk in place of the town hall

In the central part of the square stands a stone obelisk commemorating the town hall that functioned here from the 16th to the 19th century — the building did not survive, and the stone symbolically reproduces a fragment of its wall, bearing a plaque with dates. It is a rare case: instead of rebuilt structures, the square’s history is marked by a simple sign.

The Tsar’s townhouse and the maidens from the song

On the square stands the “Tsar’s townhouse” at number 22 — a one-storey 18th-century house with a wavy gable where Tsar Alexander I stayed in 1823 while travelling from Verona to Warsaw. In the middle of the square, since 2009, runs the “Siewierz Maidens” fountain, referring to a song from the repertoire of the Śląsk Song and Dance Ensemble, and since 2018 the Hadyna and Pyzik Bench — the song’s authors — stands beside it.

In practice

From the square it is a short walk to the Gothic church of St. Matthias and the Siewierz castle, the former residence of the bishops. After revitalisation the square is comfortable for walkers; leave the car in the car park nearby, as transit traffic crosses the square. Best combined with the castle and the heritage room in the former rectory.