Czerna Castle

Above the entrance to Czerna Castle, on a stone plaque in the portal, the motto of its first owner has been visible for more than 450 years: “Alles mit bedacht” – “everything with forethought”. This Renaissance residence on the Oder, in the Żukowice district near Głogów in Lower Silesia, has kept what many Silesian manor houses have lost: rooms with late-Gothic crystal and net vaults, a portal bearing eight ancestral coats of arms, and the mark of the master builder himself. Today it is a private castle where you can stay overnight or, by prior booking, tour the interiors with a guide.

History: a castle for the eldest son

Czerna appears in records as early as 1308 (as Schyrnino), later as Scirnyna and Cschirna. For centuries it was known in German as Klein Tschirne; in 1936 it was renamed Alteichen, and since 1945 it has been called Czerna. In 1485 the village passed to Melchior von Glaubitz, ancestor of the later owners.

Construction began in 1558 under Wolfgang (Wolf) von Glaubitz, a wealthy owner of several nearby villages who held the privilege of producing malt for beer. He built the residence for Christoph, the eldest of his eleven children. The design came from Hans Lindner of Lwówek Śląski, a master builder renowned in Silesia for his decorative vaults.

The estate later passed to the von Rechenberg and von Stosch families. Around 1725 the Stosch family added a two-storey east wing – the only major change to the building. In the 19th century the castle belonged among others to the barons von Buddenbrock, and until 1945 to the von Frische family. In the late 1990s it came into private hands, and its rooms and wall paintings have been restored step by step.

What to see

The three-storey building of brick interlaced with stone stands on a rectangular plan of about 30 × 20 m. A tower on the front façade still houses the staircase, as it did centuries ago. Outside, note the pair of gables with wavy outlines; the finest detail is the entrance portal:

• a frieze with eight heraldic cartouches – four ancestral arms each for Christoph and his wife (a true nobleman had to prove noble descent in all four grandparents),
• Hans Lindner's mason's mark, given a prominent place, a sign of the builder's fame,
• later owners' arms: von Stosch and von Landskron dated 1725, and a von Buddenbrock cartouche dated 1833.

The ground-floor rooms, arranged in an enfilade, preserve a whole catalogue of vaults – barrel, ribbed, net and crystal vaults. Some are covered with restored painted decoration, while rooms with flat ceilings have stucco frames around illusionistic ceiling paintings. Several rooms have fireplaces and stove-fireplaces from different periods; one tiled stove bears the von Pückler coat of arms. Below the castle lie spacious cellars with brick vaults resting on massive pillars.

The park by the Oder

The castle is surrounded by an English-style landscape park of about 5 hectares, with old oaks and oxbow lakes of the Oder. The ensemble also includes a 19th-century manor house and granary on the home farm.

Tripto tip

Tours of the interiors are paid and by prior reservation only (tel. +48 692 266 518), so don't turn up unannounced. The castle also offers accommodation in the east wing, with free parking for guests right by the building. Some of the furniture and objects inside came here from Lviv after the war, along with the story of the new owners.

Spend a few minutes at the portal before going in: look for the motto plaque and the builder's mark. Allow about 1.5–2 hours for a guided visit and a walk in the park. Note that Poland has several villages called Czerna – this one is in Głogów County, Lower Silesia.