Kończyce Małe Castle

On the road from Jastrzębie-Zdrój to Cieszyn, beside a pond in the village of Kończyce Małe, stands a building nicknamed the "Wawel of Cieszyn". It owes the name to its Renaissance arcaded courtyard, something no other noble residence in the Cieszyn region could boast. Although everyone calls it a castle, it is in fact a fortified manor house, the only one of its kind in Cieszyn Silesia.

History: from the Golasowskis to a peasant fortune

The first Gothic castle was built at the end of the 14th century by the Golasowski family. In 1560 it was extended by Jerzy Sedlnicki, as shown by a stone portal bearing the Odrowąż coat of arms. After Katarzyna Sedlnicka married, the estate passed to the Czela family, one of the most important in the Duchy of Cieszyn. Piotr Czela, son of the duchy's chancellor, turned the building into a four-winged Renaissance residence with an arcaded courtyard, protected by a moat, marshes and a pond.

In 1657 Wacław Pełka bought Kończyce, and for 180 years the castle was the Pełka family seat. In the 1820s they filled in the moats and laid out an English-style landscape garden with a poplar avenue in their place. In 1837 the widow of Jerzy Pełka sold the estate to Jan Andrzej Folwarczny, a peasant whose family had grown rich supplying the army during the Napoleonic Wars. The Folwarcznys stayed until 1945, when the last owner, Hildegarda Wurzian, left ahead of the Red Army.

What to see

• The arcaded walkway in the courtyard, with basket arches and an upper gallery resting on wooden posts.
• Renaissance window frames from the mid-16th century, some with traces of crosses, and Renaissance grilles on the ground-floor windows.
• A Renaissance portal in the south-west wing, rusticated, with a lintel decorated with simple rosettes.
• The Regional Chamber, a small local museum inside the castle.
• The park with a pond and footbridge, the former landscape garden laid out over the moats.

Interesting facts

The castle was damaged in the fighting of early 1945 and thoroughly looted, and in 1946 it was taken over by the state. It was rebuilt in 1956–1958, and in 1960 a third wing with an auditorium was added to the two surviving ones. So what you see today is two historic wings at right angles plus a post-war addition, not the full quadrangle of the Czela era. The courtyard hosts concerts of the "Viva il Canto" music festival from nearby Cieszyn.

Tripto tip

The castle belongs to the Zebrzydowice municipality. It houses the Regional Chamber and a hotel, and in March 2025 the municipality signed a lease with a new restaurant operator after earlier tenants pulled out. Check the Regional Chamber's hours and whether the restaurant is open with the municipality or the Zebrzydowice cultural centre (GOK) before you go. Allow 30–45 minutes for a walk round the pond and a look at the courtyard. Green cycle route no. 13 (Rybnik – Jastrzębie-Zdrój – Ustroń) passes the castle, as does the 25-km Piotrówka Castles Trail, which links it with Kończyce Wielkie, Zebrzydowice and other sites.