Roztoka Castle

A moat, stone footbridges and a 40-metre tower make Roztoka Castle look like a medieval fortress, yet inside it hides a suite of palatial salons where Netflix filmed "The Doll" and the third season of "1670". For almost 450 years this was the seat of the comital line of the Hochberg family – the same dynasty that owned Książ and Pszczyna. The castle only opened to visitors in 2020 and is still one of Lower Silesia's lesser-known historic houses.

History: from moated castle to Hochberg palace

A moated castle already stood here in the 14th century; in 1374 a knight named Hentschel von Reibnitz is recorded as owner. The turning point came on 2 January 1497, when Conrad von Hochberg bought Roztoka – and the village stayed with the family until 1945. Conrad's sons split the estate, creating two branches of the Hochbergs: the Roztoka line and the Książ line.

In the early 18th century Hans Heinrich III von Hochberg rebuilt the seat as a Baroque residence with a French garden. After the Battle of Hohenfriedberg (Dobromierz) on 4 June 1745, Frederick the Great set up his quarters here – according to tradition he was so taken with the garden that he slept in a tent under the open sky. The king gave his host a portrait of himself; it went missing after the war and has hung in Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam since 1993.

In 1868–1871 Count Bolko von Hochberg – a composer and later director of the court opera in Berlin – gave the building its Neo-Renaissance dress and laid out an English-style landscape park. On 17 September 1890, during the imperial manoeuvres, two emperors were guests here at the same time: Franz Joseph I and Wilhelm II.

War, decline and rescue

During the Second World War the castle served as a depository for collections evacuated from Berlin, Wrocław and Książ, among others. After 1945 it was a holiday camp for a steelworks, then workers' housing, and in the 1990s it decayed in private hands – the historic tiled stoves disappeared at that time. In 2017 Małgorzata and Maciej Śnieżek bought the estate and have been restoring it step by step.

What to see

• Piano nobile – the grand first floor with an enfilade of rooms: the Tapestry Salon, Bolko von Hochberg's Music Salon, the former library and the two-storey Ballroom with an allegorical ceiling fresco.
• Fireplaces of blue marble, white alabaster and red sandstone, plus original doors and windows.
• East façade – above the portal, the Hochberg coat of arms held by knights in armour.
• French garden – a flower parterre with a fountain, an octagonal pavilion called the Favorita, orangeries and a Mannerist portal brought here from Legnica.
• English park with dozens of protected veteran trees.

Interesting facts

The interiors stood in for Chopin's Paris apartment in Michał Kwieciński's biopic of the composer, for Wokulski's and Izabela Łęcka's Warsaw rooms in Netflix's "The Doll", and for royal and episcopal chambers in "1670". In 2020 the media reported on an alleged 28 tonnes of Nazi gold hidden in a well near the castle; the owners point out that nobody has ever shown them verifiable evidence.

Tripto tip

The castle can only be visited with a guide. As of October 2026, individual tours run on Saturdays and Sundays at 12:00 and 14:00; a standard ticket costs PLN 50, children and teenagers under 18 pay PLN 30. Tickets are sold online and at the desk in the hall 10 minutes before the tour; groups of 30 or more book by email. Allow about 1.5 hours. Roztoka lies in the Dobromierz municipality, about 10 km from Jawor and Strzegom. Afterwards, look into the village's Neo-Romanesque church, modelled on Speyer Cathedral, whose crypt holds Hochberg sarcophagi.