- Type
- Castle
- Location
- Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- Commissioned by
- Casimir III the Great
- Coordinates
- 50.3272°, 19.1291°
History
An early medieval stronghold stood on the hill above the Czarna Przemsza until it was destroyed in the Mongol raid of 1241. In the 14th century, under King Casimir the Great, a masonry castle with a tall cylindrical tower was built in its place to guard the border between Lesser Poland and Silesia. In 1589 the treaty ending the dispute over the Polish crown with Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg was concluded in Będzin and Bytom. A fire in 1616 and the Swedish Deluge brought the castle to decay. In 1834 it was rebuilt in a Romantic spirit to designs by Francesco Maria Lanci, and after damage in the Second World War it was reconstructed in the 1950s.
What to see
The castle with its cylindrical tower and curtain walls dominates the town and the Przemsza valley. Inside, the Zagłębie Museum shows a collection of arms and armour from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and an exhibition on the stronghold's past. The tower looks out over Będzin and the Silesian conurbation, and fragments of the town walls survive on the slopes of the hill.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q2193788
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