Castle on Grojec Hill

The castle on Grojec Hill in Żywiec is the ruin of a medieval castle at the top of a hill 612 m above sea level, between the Soła and the Koszarawa. The site is entered in the heritage register as a ruin.

Who built the castle on Grojec

At the top there first stood an early medieval stronghold, which cannot be dated exactly, because a large part of the site was destroyed by the building of a television relay station after the Second World War. At the beginning of the 15th century the castle of Bożywój and Włodek Skrzyński of the Łabędź coat of arms was built here, robber knights and vassals of the Duchy of Oświęcim. It later belonged to the Komorowski family.

How the castle was destroyed

The Komorowskis favoured the King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus, so in the second half of the 1470s Casimir Jagiellon sent troops against them. According to Jan Długosz, in 1477 three castles were taken: in Barwałd, Szaflary and Żywiec. Archaeological data indicate that two sites in the Żywiec area were destroyed then: the castle in the town and the castle on Grojec.

What the archaeologists found

Research in 1937 and 1983 showed that the flat summit was surrounded by a dry moat and a rampart of clay and large sandstone boulders, on an oval plan about 100 metres long and about 40 metres wide. The oldest traces of settlement from the Lusatian period were found, as well as nails, a knife, a horse bit, a crossbow bolt head and a silver denarius of Władysław Jagiełło. The finds from the 1937 excavations, kept in the Municipal Museum in Żywiec, were lost during the Second World War.

Practical information

• A yellow trail leads over the summit from the centre of Żywiec through Mały Grojec to Żywiec-Zabłocie.
• These are ruins in open country, with no accessible interiors and no organised sightseeing.