Pszczyna is associated above all with its castle, but the whole palace and park complex covers 156 hectares along the Pszczynka river, and it is in the park, not in the rooms of the palace, that you can spend most of the day. In this text the castle is only a point of reference: its rebuilding, the story of Princess Daisy and the restoration of the bison herd are described in separate articles in this section. Here we lay out a walk around what surrounds it: the open-air museum, the bison enclosure, small museums and places on the edge of the park.

How the park is laid out

The origins of the park go back to the Renaissance rebuilding of the castle in the 16th century, when vegetable gardens were created next to the residence, and in the north-western part a menagerie with fallow deer and peacocks. In the second half of the 18th century, during the Baroque rebuilding of the residence, the complex was extended onto the former marshes on both sides of the Pszczynka and based on French models. The present shape, an English-style park, dates from the second half of the 19th century: the main avenue on the axis was then removed and in its place a broad clearing reaching the river's meanders was created, and the banks were planted with trees and shrubs, including exotic species such as the London plane and the tulip tree.

This is useful for planning, because the park is divided into three parts. The Castle Park (48 ha) is centred around the castle and the Ludwikówka manor house, and its main communication axis is the avenue from the castle to the old St Hedwig's cemetery. The Station Park (Park Dworcowy) stretches from the railway tracks and station to the boundary with the Castle Park on Katowicka Street and houses the open-air museum. The Menagerie Park (Park Zwierzyniec), also called the Wild Promenade, was established at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries on the site of a drained town park, and today it contains the bison enclosure. Small structures have also survived in the park: a tea pavilion on an island, a Chinese gate, bridges, an ice house and wayside shrines.

The open-air museum: Zagroda Wsi Pszczyńskiej

The Zagroda Wsi Pszczyńskiej (Pszczyna Village Farmstead) was opened in 1975 on about two hectares. The buildings were moved from nearby villages in order to save the last evidence of traditional construction. The oldest is the manor granary from Czechowice, dated 1784. Next to it stand an octagonal barn from Kryry from the 18th century, a cottage from Grzawa from 1831, a smithy from Goczałkowice and a water mill from Bojszowy, in which exhibition rooms have been set up. The open-air museum belongs to the Wooden Architecture Trail of the Silesian Voivodeship. Its location is described slightly differently: some sources give the Station Park (formerly the Railway Park), others the eastern part of the park, but it is the same area by Parkowa Street.

Inside you will see agricultural and craft tools, ladder wagons known as drabiniaki, freight sleighs and light carriages. The open-air museum runs workshops and folklore events, so check on its website before your visit what is on the programme.

The bison enclosure

The Pokazowa Zagroda Żubrów (Bison Demonstration Enclosure) in the Menagerie Park was opened on 1 June 2008. The two enclosures together cover about 10 hectares. Besides bison, mouflon, red deer, fallow deer and roe deer live here, and among birds ducks, ruddy shelducks, brant geese, geese, swans and peafowl. There is also an educational trail, "In the Footsteps of the European Bison". Feeding times change depending on the season, so check them with the organiser. Dogs are not allowed into the enclosure, with the exception of guide dogs.

The bison in Pszczyna are animals in a demonstration breeding programme. If you want to see a second, quite different form of protection of the species, there is the Żubrowisko reserve in the Pszczyna Forest: a fenced area closed to visitors, of about 745 hectares, in which a herd of about 30 animals is protected. You do not see the bison there on a free walk.

Suggested order

The distances from the portal's entries are as follows: the open-air museum lies about 700 metres from the castle, and the bison enclosure about 1.4 kilometres from the open-air museum. A sensible order looks like this.

  1. Start with the market square: a rectangular square entered in the heritage register in 1967, with 18th- and 19th-century buildings after the great fire of 1748. On the square stands the bench of Princess Daisy, and at its western end the square leads to the castle through the Brama Wybrańców gate.
  2. By the market square, in a small townhouse on Piastowska Street, is the Silesian Press Museum. According to the entry it is about 300 metres from the open-air museum. The collections are printing machines, a linotype and old newspapers, and upstairs there is a room devoted to Georg Philipp Telemann, who stayed at the court of the princes of Pszczyna in 1705-1709.
  3. From the castle park you can reach St Hedwig's cemetery, whose origins go back to 1501. It is an active cemetery, so quiet is required.
  4. On the edge of the park, in the neo-Baroque Gardener's House on Katowicka Street, the Museum of the Military History of Silesia operates, opened in 2014.
  5. Then the open-air museum, and finally the Menagerie Park with the bison enclosure. In the south-western corner of the park, at the junction of Wojska Polskiego and Żorska streets, stands also the "Bądź Wola Twoja" wayside shrine.

A trace of the former Jewish community

A few steps from the market square, on Bramkowa Street, stands the former synagogue from 1835, built on the site of a house of prayer founded in 1765. At the beginning of the Second World War the building was set on fire, and in 1941-1942 it was converted into a cinema: the original openings were bricked up and new ones cut. The building no longer serves a religious function, and it is worth treating as a place of remembrance, not as an attraction, even though it lies on the way.

How long it takes

The open-air museum, the enclosure and one small museum will comfortably fill half a day, and with the market square, the synagogue and the castle park, a whole day. Opening hours and visiting rules change with the season, so always check them with the managers of the sites.