Niemodlin Castle

"Stained-glass windows" made of coloured foil still hang in the cloisters, and in the courtyard you can see monks' cell frames painted on plywood – souvenirs of the film "Jasminum", which Jan Jakub Kolski shot in the then-ruined castle. Niemodlin Castle has more than 700 years of history behind it: Piast dukes of Opole, Silesian counts and forgotten communist-era decades – and for several years now it has also been an example of a monument coming back to life. The guided tour runs from the Renaissance courtyard down to cellars with a torture chamber, and fallow deer roam the park.

History: from a Piast stronghold to the Praschma family

In 1313 Duke Bolesław the Firstborn, son of Duke Bolko I of Opole, built a brick castle on the left bank of the Ścinawa Niemodlińska river, on the site of an earlier wooden stronghold. The Gothic building almost disappeared inside later walls, but traces of it – glazed brickwork and fragments of carved stone – can still be spotted in the south-western wing. The castle was destroyed by the Hussites in 1428 and gutted by fire in 1552.

Its present form was given by new owners, the Pückler family and later the Promnitz family. In several stages in the late 16th and early 17th centuries a four-winged residence with an arcaded courtyard took shape, inspired – like the nearby castles in Brzeg and Prószków – by the galleries of Wawel Castle in Kraków. The castle suffered again in 1643 during the Thirty Years' War, and from the late 18th century until 1945 it belonged to the counts of Praschma, who remodelled the interiors.

What to see

• The gate tower in the west wing – square at the bottom, octagonal at the top, decorated with sgraffito and topped with a late Baroque cupola; above the portal is a cartouche with the Praschma coat of arms.
• The bridge over the former moat with statues of four saints: Wendelin, Florian, Anthony of Padua and John of Nepomuk.
• The Renaissance courtyard with corner stair towers, and the neo-Gothic chapel.
• The cellars: crypts, an icon gallery, an armoury, an alchemy exhibition, a torture chamber and a hypocaust – a medieval hot-air heating system.
• The music room and the library with original castle furniture.

By the entrance to the dungeons lies the so-called Stone of Power. A modern legend links it with an alleged meeting between the witch Ragana and Duke Mieszko I – a story, not historical fact.

Did you know?

• After 1945 the castle housed the State Repatriation Office, a secondary school and a school for non-commissioned officers. In 1990 the decaying building was bought by a private investor, and in 2015 it was taken over by a company from Łódź, which set up a foundation to save the monument.
• In 2016 almost 4,000 m² of roof were re-covered with about 120,000 roof tiles.
• In 2017 the castle won the online vote "Top Castles and Palaces in Poland" and received the Polish Tourist Organisation's Internet Users' Certificate.
• The park is home to the European Sculpture Park: since 2023, every summer (31 July – 15 August) artists from Poland and abroad create works here that remain in the park permanently.

Tripto tip

The interiors can only be visited with a guide or a member of staff; the tour takes about 60 minutes, starts on the hour, and the visitor rules require a booking (online, by phone or by email). According to the rules, from April to October the castle is open Tuesday to Friday 10:00–16:00 and until 18:00 at weekends; from November to March it is open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–16:00. Last entry is one hour before closing; check current ticket prices on the castle's website. The castle is about 30 km west of Opole on national road 46 and has a car park. Leave time for the park with its seven protected veteran trees and herd of fallow deer, and for Restaurant 1313 in the former carriage house, where you can sit in one of four original horse stalls.