Grodziec Castle

Around 1800 Count Hans Heinrich VI von Hochberg restored part of the ruins at Grodziec, filled the rooms with memorabilia and opened them to visitors — at the time the castle was regarded as the first historic monument in Europe adapted specifically for tourists. The fortress stands on a steep basalt hill of volcanic origin, 389 m above sea level, towering over the Kaczawskie Foothills of Lower Silesia. Its romantic look today is the work of the renowned castle architect Bodo Ebhardt in the early 20th century.

History: from a tribal stronghold to a Piast castle

The first written record comes from a bull of Pope Adrian IV dated 23 April 1155, when it was a fortified stronghold of the Bobrzanie tribe. By 1175 it belonged to Duke Bolesław I the Tall, and in 1296–1301 Duke Bolko I of Świdnica and Jawor expanded it. Under the Dukes of Legnica, Frederick I and Frederick II, the castle gained a hexagonal stone circuit with corner towers and a square tower. During the Hussite Wars it was captured and plundered. In 1522–1524 Wendelin Rosskopf of Görlitz remodelled it in Renaissance style. In September 1633, during the Thirty Years' War, a fire destroyed much of the castle, which then slowly fell into ruin.

Ebhardt and the von Dirksen family

In 1899 the estate was bought by Willibald von Dirksen, and in 1906 he commissioned the castle specialist Bodo Ebhardt to study the site and design a restoration. Ebhardt did not rebuild everything: he kept the keep and part of the walls as a "stabilised ruin", gave the palatium a new hipped roof, and built new gates and curtain walls with wall-walks. The last owner, Herbert von Dirksen, a Nazi politician, stayed at Grodziec until the final months of the war. In 1945 the castle held collections from Wrocław's museums and from the Berlin State Library — and those deposits have inspired many stories of hidden treasure.

What to see

• The palatium, the ducal palace that bends at a 30-degree angle — one of the few surviving ducal residences in Silesia, with walls 5 m thick at the base.
• The Knights' Hall with Gothic portals and the adjoining chapel on the second floor, plus a room with a Gothic fireplace decorated with lion-like creatures.
• The keep, 16 m square and more than 26 m high over six storeys, and the smaller "Old" tower with its crenellated wall-walk.
• The well in the courtyard, where hundreds of objects from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century have been found; it may have been a cistern for use during sieges.
• The outer bailey, measuring 270 × 140 m and flanked by turrets.

Interesting facts

In 2004–2005 Swedish, French, Belgian and Russian television crews filmed here. The castle hosts knightly tournaments, a wine and mead festival and the Polish edition of Witcher School, a live-action role-playing game set in the world of The Witcher. It lies on the Piast Castles Trail and has been a listed monument since 1951.

Tripto tip

Allow 1–1.5 hours for the courtyards, palatium and tower. The castle is privately leased and runs its own events calendar, so check current opening times, prices and guided-tour dates on the castle's official website before you go. The hill is steep, so comfortable shoes help. Grodziec is in the Zagrodno municipality, Złotoryja county, and combines well with other castles in the Kaczawskie Foothills.