Royal Castle in Radom

An unassuming single-storey building on ul. Wałowa, now the presbytery of St John's parish church, is all that remains of the Royal Castle in Radom. Yet it was here in 1505 that the Sejm passed the Nihil novi constitution, which barred the king from making new laws without the consent of parliament; here in 1489 the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order paid homage to King Casimir IV Jagiellon; and the Jagiellonian kings stayed at the castle at least 75 times. If you know where to look, you can spot Gothic windows and walls up to 2.5 metres thick in the presbytery's plaster.

History: a castle on the road from Kraków to Vilnius

The castle was built in the mid-14th century on the orders of Casimir the Great, together with the walls of New Radom. At first it was more of a royal travel lodge, with two storeyed buildings, including the residential Great House measuring about 11 × 38 m. Radom lay on the Jagiellonian route between Kraków and Vilnius, so the castle was soon enlarged. In 1510–1515 the governor Mikołaj Szydłowiecki rebuilt it for King Sigismund the Old in a late Gothic and Renaissance style, with stone galleries and a residential tower. In 1548 Sigismund Augustus presented his wife Barbara Radziwiłł to the nobility here, and in 1563–1566 the castle was the enforced residence of Catherine of Austria, the queen the king had sent away.

Decline and rebuilding

The Swedish Deluge proved a disaster – in 1655 the Swedes burned the castle. It was only partly rebuilt in the mid-18th century, and in 1787 the last governor, Aleksander Potkański, turned the remains into a more comfortable manor and archive, demolishing the upper floor of the Great House. In the 19th century the town walls were pulled down along with the last castle towers, leaving the ground floor, which has served as a presbytery ever since.

What to look for

• Five small Gothic windows on the south side, lighting the lowest storey, and fragments of a Renaissance window sill and frame.
• Exposed brickwork on the façades – traces of the original walls before the rebuildings.
• A reconstructed section of town wall on the west side, standing on the original stone foundation.
• Plaques in the fence commemorating the Nihil novi constitution and the 1401 Union of Vilnius and Radom between Poland and Lithuania.
• St Casimir's Chapel inside the castle, designed by Prof. Wiktor Zin – the parish priest tells of its acoustics: a whisper in one corner can be heard only in the opposite one.

Tripto tip

The presbytery is not a museum with daily opening: the cellars and chapel are occasionally opened for events and history walks, so on a normal day you see the building from outside. Walk round it from ul. Wałowa and along the town wall, where most medieval traces are visible. 15–20 minutes is enough for the castle, but add the neighbouring St John's parish church, also founded by Casimir the Great, and the Kamienica Starościńska (Governor's House), where finds from excavations in the medieval town are on display. Work is reportedly under way in the cellars to expose the foundations for a future castle museum.