Gosławice Castle (District Museum in Konin)

Bishop Andrzej Łaskarz (1362–1426) built a brick castle and a Gothic church on the shore of Lake Gosławskie in 1418–1426. The castle survived as a ruin, served for years as a brewery or distillery and, after restoration in 1978–1986, became the main seat of the District Museum in Konin. A whole museum village has grown up around it: a granary, a manor house, an open-air ethnographic museum with windmills and a park of mining machinery.

History: a bishop’s stronghold

The castle consists of two parallel residential buildings enclosed by a wall with small shooting towers at the corners, and was further protected by a moat. Archaeological research shows it was destroyed in the mid-17th century during the Swedish invasion known in Poland as the Deluge. In 1772 the estate passed to Jadwiga Łącka and later to the Kwilecki family. In 1838 a granary was begun between the church and the castle, and the castle itself was converted for industrial use. It decayed between the wars until it was restored in 1978–1986 and opened to visitors on 30 November 1986.

Gosławice now lies within the city of Konin, and the museum – which grew out of a local heritage room founded by the Polish tourist society PTTK in 1953 – documents the history of the whole Konin region.

What to see

• The castle with the exhibitions “Konin through the Ages”, “Prehistory of the Konin Region” and a display of jewellery from the museum’s collection.
• The 19th-century granary, where new exhibitions opened in 2010.
• Natural history displays: “Mammoths and Rhinos” with remains of extinct giant herbivores from around Konin, and an exhibition on the straight-tusked forest elephant, built around one of the most complete skeletons of the species.
• 44 painted Renaissance boards from the former ceiling of St James’s Church in Rzgów, and a Judaica exhibition.
• The manor from Ruszków near Koło – a reconstruction of an 18th-century country house with the exhibition “The Polish Manor”.
• An ethnographic open-air museum with post windmills and an open-air display of mining machinery, a reminder of lignite mining in eastern Greater Poland.
• The Gothic church from Łaskarz’s time right next to the castle.

Legend

Local tradition says the castle is haunted by the ghost of Mikołaj Lubrański, a provincial governor notorious for his cruelty, who is said to appear as a man wrapped in flames, uttering inhuman cries.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Tuesday to Friday 10:00–18:00 and Saturday–Sunday 12:00–18:00; closed on Mondays and public holidays. A standard ticket costs PLN 30, reduced PLN 20, family PLN 60, and an audio guide PLN 10. The entrance is on ul. Gotycka, next to the church. City bus 56 runs from the railway and bus station, and lines 55, 63 and 70 from the centre. Allow 2–3 hours for the castle, granary and open-air displays. In central Konin, see the Romanesque road milestone of 1151, set up halfway between Kruszwica and Kalisz; the Licheń sanctuary is about 7 km away.