Rabsztyn Castle

Three Kraków councillors sat in this castle's dungeon until their city paid compensation for the killing of its lord. Rabsztyn Castle, whose name comes from the German Rabenstein, "Raven Rock", stands on a limestone hill (427.5 m above sea level) a few kilometres from Olkusz and is part of the Trail of the Eagles' Nests, a chain of medieval castles across the Polish Jura. Today a partly reconstructed tower offers a panorama of the Olkusz area, and at the foot of the hill stands the Kocjan Cottage.

History: a raven's rock on the border

Excavations show that the first timber buildings stood on the rock in the second half of the 13th century. The castle guarded the border with Bohemia and the trade route from Kraków to Wrocław, and the stone residence and tower were probably built under King Casimir the Great. The first written records date from 1396. In the 15th century the castle was held by the Melsztyński family and then the Tęczyński family. Andrzej Tęczyński beat up an armourer who had supposedly botched his armour and was killed by Kraków townspeople; six councillors were executed for his death, and three more were held at Rabsztyn until Kraków paid up.

The Boners, a palace and decline

From 1515 the castle was leased to Jan Boner, a banker from Alsace, and his family held the local office of starost for four generations. In 1573 Seweryn Boner the Younger entertained King Henry of Valois here. In 1587–1588 the garrison under the Cossack captain Gabriel Hołubek defended the castle against the Zborowski family, allies of the Habsburgs. After 1599 Mikołaj Wolski began building a late-Renaissance palace with about 40 rooms on the site of the lower castle. In 1657 the retreating Swedes burned the fortress, and in time the owners moved to a manor house at the foot of the hill.

What to see

The castle had three parts: upper, middle and lower.

• the upper castle with its tower, rectangular at the base and semicircular above, raised in brick as an octagon in the mid-15th century; after reconstruction it is a viewing terrace,
• the middle castle with gate, courtyard and a once-deep well,
• the walls of the palace from around 1600 on the site of the lower castle,
• the dry moat on the north side, crossed by wooden bridges,
• the Kocjan Cottage, a reconstructed wooden house where the glider designer Antoni Kocjan was born in 1902, with an exhibition on his work and an ethnographic display.

The partial reconstruction was carried out by the Rabsztyn Castle Association and Olkusz municipality and completed in 2021. The ruins have appeared on screen, including in the film Karol: A Man Who Became Pope.

Tickets and getting there

According to the price list on the castle's website, a standard ticket costs PLN 20 from Tuesday to Friday and PLN 25 at weekends (reduced PLN 15 and PLN 18). Children under 3 go free. From April to October the ticket includes the Kocjan Cottage. On Saturdays and Sundays from March to October guides lead tours on the hour between 11:00 and 16:00, and an audio guide costs PLN 5. The castle opens seasonally, with last entry 30 minutes before closing.

Tripto tip

The address is Rabsztyn 24, 32-300 Olkusz. Because the national road DK94 is being rebuilt, access can be awkward; the castle advises heading for the Olkusz bypass. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the castle, the tower and the Kocjan Cottage. The tower stairs are steep, so take it slowly with small children. The annual knights' tournaments and the Juromania festival draw big crowds; if you prefer peace and quiet, check the events calendar and come on a weekday.