Castles

Będzin Castle

Będzin Castle is one of the oldest strongholds of Lesser Poland — the story of fortifications on Castle Hill goes back to a 9th-century Vistulan gord. The stone keep, a round tower 10.7 metres in diameter, was raised in the second half of the 13th century under Bolesław the Chaste and remains the oldest part of the complex. In 1349 Casimir the Great added a masonry castle beside it: after Silesia was lost in 1348, the kingdom's border ran just beyond the Czarna Przemsza river, making Będzin a frontier fortress guarding the road to Kraków.

The stronghold's later fortunes read like a costume-drama script: a fire in 1616, destruction during the Swedish Deluge, a Romantic-style rebuilding by Francesco Maria Lanci in 1834, restoration in the Second Polish Republic to designs by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (1929), and finally the post-war reconstruction by Zygmunt Gawlik in 1952–1956 that gave the castle its present shape. Since 1956 the walls have housed the Museum of Zagłębie — the region's first museum — with collections of arms and armour and interiors of the old starostwo.

From the castle tower stretches one of the finest panoramas of the Zagłębie region, over the roofs of Będzin, the Czarna Przemsza valley and the industrial horizon of the conurbation.

Practical tips: allow one to one and a half hours including the tower. The ticket office closes half an hour before the museum, and the tower viewpoint is open only from April to October — from 1 November to 31 March it is closed. Check current prices and hours at muzeumzaglebia.pl.