A 15th-16th-century Renaissance castle in Cieszyn Silesia which, according to descriptions, never burned down, with a neo-Gothic chapel, a park and a museum.
Grodziec Castle is a historic castle in the village of Grodziec in the Jasienica municipality, in Cieszyn Silesia. Its oldest masonry phase dates from the 15th century, and its present Renaissance form was given in the 16th century. The castle stands out because, according to descriptions, it never burned down or fell into ruin, and so has preserved a great deal of its original fabric. A museum operates in the castle, and visits take place at set times after booking.
The site is regarded as having been fortified for a long time, from an earth-and-timber structure to a masonry castle. The castle stood on a trade route from Lesser Poland through Cieszyn Silesia to Moravia, along which mainly salt from Wieliczka, as well as wine and textiles, was transported. The knights of Brody of the Radwan coat of arms took advantage of this boom, extended the fortress and built spacious cellars, probably for merchants' goods.
The castle's website gives the results of research carried out during the renovation. They show that a wooden residential and defensive complex already existed here in the 12th-13th centuries, and a masonry residential and defensive tower was built still in the Middle Ages. The extension of the castle by the Grodziecki family is probably dated to the years 1552-1564, although these dates still require confirmation by further research. In the 16th century the Cieszyn starost Maciej Grodziecki rebuilt the castle into a one-storey Renaissance fortified manor with an attic and projecting bays.
The castle was held by the Grodzieckis, and later by the Marklowskis, the Sobeks, the Larisches and other families. Wacław Grodziecki, author of a map of Poland from 1558, came from the Grodziecki family, and his brother Jan became Bishop of Olomouc. The castle's website announces permanent exhibitions devoted to the cartographer Wacław Grodziecki.
In 1885 the estate was bought by the Biała industrialist Franz Strzygowski, and in 1927 the estate was acquired by Ernest Habicht, a lawyer and independence activist, the first Polish envoy in Vienna. The castle's guests included Robert and Olave Baden-Powell, the founders of scouting, the writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, the painter Wojciech Kossak and the author Kornel Makuszyński. The writer is the subject of the nearby Museum of Zofia Kossak-Szatkowska in Górki Wielkie.
In the mid-19th century the staircase in the north-western tower was rebuilt, and a neo-Gothic chapel was set up in the north-eastern tower. In the first-floor hall, in the crowning of a wooden arcade, coats of arms were painted on shields on the occasion of a wedding held in 1846. Of the former interior, remnants of wainscoting, portals, ceilings of profiled larch beams, and the original floors and window joinery have survived. The area around the castle, with its rich old trees, was turned into an English park of a romantic character.
In the years 1939-1945 the castle was confiscated by the German authorities and, among other things, a field hospital was set up in it. The castle's collections were looted and in 1942 taken away, mainly to the museum in Bytom. After the war the castle was looked after in turn by the Polish Academy of Learning, a research institute in Puławy, and in the years 1950-2004 by the Institute of Animal Breeding. Since 2004 the castle has been privately owned and its renovation is under way, with some rooms opened as a museum.
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