Górka Castle in Szamotuły

Behind the castle in Szamotuły stands a brick tower where, according to tradition, Halszka of Ostroh – a princess and granddaughter of King Sigismund the Old, forced to marry Łukasz III Górka – was held for 14 years. Górka Castle is now a museum which, besides the rooms of a magnate’s residence, holds one of the largest collections of Orthodox church art in Poland. It began unusually: from 1994 the museum received icons seized by customs officers from smugglers at the border.

History: seat of the Szamotulski and Górka families

The castle dates back to the first half of the 15th century and was founded by the Szamotulski family. In 1499 Katarzyna Szamotulska married Łukasz II Górka and brought him part of the town and the castle as her dowry. Around 1518 Górka remodelled the residence; a reminder is the stone tablet with heralds holding the Łodzia and Nałęcz coats of arms, which once hung above the gate and is now in the museum’s entrance hall. The Górkas joined two single-storey buildings into one L-shaped house and added an upper floor. From 1551 the castle housed the first printing press in Greater Poland, publishing books in Polish and Czech.

After Łukasz III died childless in 1572, the castle changed hands often and declined. In 1837 Szamotuły was bought by the Prussian crown prince Frederick William, and soon passed to the dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who carried out a thorough and rather heavy-handed rebuilding. After the Second World War it housed an agricultural college. Following conservation work in 1976–1989, the castle became the museum’s main building in 1990.

What to see

• The castle: rooms of a magnate’s residence with furniture, textiles, porcelain and clocks, a brick arcaded frieze and fragments of 16th-century wall painting, including the Górka coat of arms in a niche above the staircase.
• The icon collection: about 1,200 objects, roughly 350 of them on permanent display. The oldest icons date from the 17th century. Look out for the small enamel icons – probably the only such collection in Poland – and an icon of the Virgin by the painter Jerzy Nowosielski.
• Halszka’s Tower: an archaeology display in the cellar, Halszka’s chamber on the first floor with a figure in a black dress made of film tape, and above it the history of Szamotuły from 1231 to 1945.
• A collection of contemporary Polish painting on wood and an ethnographic exhibition in the western outbuilding.

Tripto tip

From May to September the museum is open Tuesday–Saturday 09:00–16:00 and Sundays and holidays 10:00–17:00; from October to April Tuesday–Friday 09:00–16:00 and weekends 10:00–16:00. It is closed on Mondays. Entry to the castle and granary is free on Thursdays. A guided tour of the whole complex costs PLN 150 for a group of up to 25 and must be booked at least 7 days ahead; without a guide you can simply turn up. The castle is at ul. Wroniecka 30, in a historic park with traces of the moat and ramparts. Allow 1.5–2 hours for the castle and tower.