Uniejów Castle

The Archbishops of Gniezno once kept their cathedral's treasury and archive in Uniejów — today hotel guests sleep within the same walls, warmed by geothermal water from beneath the town. Built in 1360–1365 on the Warta River, the castle is a rare example of a building where Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and 19th-century Romantic alterations sit layer upon layer.

History: from bishops' fortress to hotel

The brick castle was built on the initiative of Archbishop Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki, a close associate of King Casimir the Great, on the site of a wooden fort destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1331. The result was a quadrangle with a cylindrical tower that guarded the Warta crossing and served as the administrative centre of the archbishops' estates. It held the library, archive and treasury of Gniezno Cathedral, and in 1376 it hosted a synod attended by a papal nuncio. Historians at the University of Łódź also recall an episode in 1381, when the castle was briefly seized and plundered by Bernard of Garbów.

After a fire in 1525, the starost Stanisław of Gomolin turned the fortress into a Renaissance residence, completed in 1534. In the first half of the 17th century the castle lost its defensive role and took on an early Baroque form — the entrance portal bearing the coats of arms of Archbishops Jan Wężyk and Maciej Łubieński dates from this time. Saxon troops ransacked it in 1704, and after a town fire in 1736 Bishop Krzysztof Antoni Szembek rebuilt the roofs.

In 1836 the Tsar granted the castle to General Karl Toll for his part in crushing the November Uprising, the Polish revolt of 1830–31 against Russian rule. The general never lived here, but his son Aleksander remodelled the residence in Romantic style in 1848 and laid out a landscape park around it in 1860–1870. The Toll family owned Uniejów until 1918. After damage in the Second World War, the castle was restored in 1956–1967 and used as an archive.

What to see

The best-preserved part of the Gothic castle is the round defensive tower — according to the municipal guide, the only element that has kept its original character. At the entrance, look for the Baroque portal with the arms of the two archbishops, and in the courtyard for traces of successive rebuildings. During a revitalisation in 2012 a dry moat was recreated, and the interiors are heated with geothermal water.

Around the castle stretches the historic English-style castle park, covering more than 30 hectares, with riverside woodland along the Warta and an educational trail. The park has a statue of Uniejka, the White Lady of local legend, who is said to have lured robbers hunting for the castle treasure into the marshes.

The castle today

The castle operates as a hotel and conference venue with a restaurant. According to the operator, it has 6 suites — three furnished in medieval style and three in an eclectic style — plus 15 rooms. The castle and its courtyard also host concerts (the town has promoted a summer series called "Music within the Castle Walls"), knights' tournaments and historical dance shows.

Tripto tip

Combine the castle with the rest of Uniejów: a footbridge leads from the market square across the Warta, and right next to the castle is Termy Uniejów, a thermal pool complex using water at 68°C from a depth of about 2,000 m. Uniejów has been an officially recognised spa town since 2012. Allow about an hour for the castle and park, and if you want to see the interiors or climb the tower, ask at reception about current visiting arrangements first.

Nearby, see the 14th-century Gothic collegiate church across the river and the "Cerkiewka" — the Neo-Byzantine burial chapel of the Toll family from 1885, in the woods on the road to Dąbie. In nearby Spycimierz, villagers lay carpets of flowers for Corpus Christi, a tradition added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2021.