Upper Silesia and the Basin are not immediately associated with castles, and yet they hold more than a dozen: from the brick seats of the Piast dukes, through border fortresses, to the residences of bishops and magnates. Many of them have survived as ruins or were rebuilt after years of oblivion. Below is an overview that arranges them by who built them and what they are today.

The ducal seats of the Piasts

Racibórz Castle stands on the Ostróg, a former island in a bend of the Oder. The stronghold is known from the chronicle of Gallus Anonymus, which mentions it under the year 1108 as a border castellan's fortress. When an independent Duchy of Racibórz was created in 1281, Duke Przemysław began replacing the timber-and-earth ramparts with walls, and the wooden buildings with a brick complex. The most famous part is the chapel of St Thomas Becket from 1288-1293, called since the middle of the 19th century the pearl of Silesian Gothic. The castle burned many times, and after the fire of 1858 the wing above the Oder was replaced by a brewery, which stands there to this day. After 1945 the castle gradually deteriorated, and since the 1990s it has been renovated.

Toszek Castle grew up on the site of a wooden stronghold, the seat of a castellany. After it was destroyed by the Hussites in 1429, it was rebuilt by Przemysł of Toszek, a duke of the Oświęcim line of the Piasts. Its Baroque shape was given to it in 1650-1666 by the Italian architect Giovanni Seregni, commissioned by Kasper Colonna: towers by the gate, a new palace building and arcaded galleries on the courtyard side were created. A portal with the Colonna coat of arms and the date 1666 has survived on the gate. After a fire in 1811 the castle stood as a ruin, and in 1957-1963 it was partly rebuilt.

The Piast Castle in Gliwice has a completely different character. Despite its name it was never a ducal castle, and its original purpose remains uncertain. In the middle of the 14th century it consisted of two towers built into the town walls, probably an arsenal. The name Piast Castle was given only in 1983; earlier it was the Cetrycz Manor, and after 1945 the little castle. Today it houses a branch of the Gliwice Museum with an exhibition on the history of the Gliwice land.

Fortresses on the borders

For centuries Silesia lay where states met, and it is the borders that left the most fortresses here. Będzin Castle was added by Casimir the Great in 1349 to an older stone keep. Its construction is linked to Silesia passing under Bohemian rule in 1348, because the border between the Crown and Bohemia then ran along the Czarna Przemsza, at the foot of the hill. In August 1588 negotiations were held in the castle about the release of Maximilian Habsburg, imprisoned after the battle of Byczyna. The castle burned many times, and its present appearance is the result of the rebuilding of 1834 and the reconstruction of 1952-1956. Contrary to a widespread opinion, the Tatars did not take the stronghold here.

In Bielsko, from 1316 the Biała river divided the duchies of Cieszyn and Oświęcim, and in 1526-1772 it separated the Habsburg monarchy from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On this border stands the Sułkowski Dukes' Castle. The masonry building was put up in the second half of the 14th century by Duke Przemysław I Noszak of Cieszyn on the site of a wooden stronghold. From 1572 the castle was the centre of the Bielsko state country, and in 1752 this country passed into the hands of the Sułkowskis and was raised to the rank of duchy. Its eclectic form was given to it by the rebuilding of the 1850s and 1860s. Since 1945 it has housed a museum.

Further still, in the Little Beskids, lie the ruins of Wołek Castle in Kobiernice. It was built in the 14th century by Duke John I of Oświęcim as an outpost on the route through the Żywiec Basin leading to Hungary. The first mention dates from 1396, and in 1477 the castle withstood a seven-week siege by royal troops. What remains are the foundations of the walls, the moat and fragments of the gate tower.

In 1477 the castle in Żywiec also suffered. According to Jan Długosz three castles were taken then: in Barwałd, Szaflary and Żywiec, but archaeological data indicate that two sites near Żywiec were destroyed: the castle in the town and the castle on the hill. The latter is the castle on Grojec Hill, today a ruin on a summit 612 m above sea level. At the beginning of the 15th century it was held by Bożywój and Włodek Skrzyński, and later by the Komorowski family, who supported the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. The early medieval fortress on the summit is hard to date precisely, because a large part of the site was destroyed after the Second World War by the building of a television relay station.

Residences of bishops and magnates

The Bishops' Castle in Siewierz served the bishops of Kraków for over three hundred years; from 1443, after the purchase by Zbigniew Oleśnicki, they ruled the Duchy of Siewierz. In 1524-1530 Bishop Piotr Tomicki had the Gothic keep pulled down and new wings built from its material. Renaissance window surrounds and a loggia in the courtyard have survived from that time. The Baroque helm of the tower is the work of the rebuilding of 1681-1699. After the duchy was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1790, the castle was abandoned and fell into ruin. Since 1999 work has been carried out with a view to preserving it as a permanent ruin.

Pszczyna Castle began as a small hunting lodge, and the masonry Gothic castle was built here at the beginning of the 15th century through the efforts of Helena, wife of John II the Iron, Duke of Racibórz. After her wedding in 1407 she received Pszczyna for life use. Its present Neo-Baroque appearance is owed to the rebuilding of 1870-1876, led by the French architect Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur for the Hochberg family. In 1915-1916 the Supreme Headquarters of the German army was housed here, and Emperor Wilhelm II lived in the castle. About 80 per cent of the furnishings of the interiors are original, which distinguishes Pszczyna from many Silesian residences.

The castle in Chudów also belongs to the Renaissance. Its founder is given as Jan Saszowski of Gierałtowice, who built the seat in the 1530s on the site of a wooden defensive tower. The castle burned down in the 19th century. Sources differ on the year of the fire: some give 1874, others 1860. After the fire it was not rebuilt, and since 1999 the ruin has been run by the Chudów Castle Foundation. By 2004 the tower had been rebuilt, and it houses a museum with finds from archaeological research, while a Medieval Fair is held in August.

In Stare Tarnowice, a district of Tarnowskie Góry, stands a Renaissance castle with a courtyard and cloisters. The start of construction is linked to around 1520. In the 19th century its owners were the Henckel von Donnersmarcks, and after the Second World War the building was occupied by a state farm. Since its renovation in 2011 it has housed the Centre of Art and Historic Crafts.

The castle that became a hotel

Not every castle is a museum. Lubliniec Castle, after the reconstruction begun in 2005, operates as a hotel, and you visit it as a guest. The first written mention of it dates from the end of the 14th century and links it with Duke Władysław of Opole. The dates differ here: the hotel's website gives the year 1379, other sources 1397. In 1655, fearing a Swedish requisition, the Jasna Góra painting, taken out of Częstochowa, briefly found shelter here. In the 19th century a court and district office operated in the castle, and from 1893 a psychiatric hospital, after which the building fell into ruin.

How to visit

The castles on this list are well combined into routes. In the Basin it is worth joining Będzin with Siewierz, in Upper Silesia Gliwice with Toszek and Chudów, and in the Little and Żywiec Beskids the ruins on Wołek and Grojec. Some of the sites are ruins with no accessible interiors, and current opening hours are listed on the operator's website.