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Castle - Zabytek.pl

Castle


castle 14th-21st c. Ojców

Address
Ojców

Location
woj. małopolskie, pow. krakowski, gm. Skała - obszar wiejski

Preserved relics of a royal castle of an administrative and residential function.

History

The ruins of the castle can be found on a hill on the right bank of the Prądnik River. The fortified building was erected by King Casimir the Great, as evidence in mediaeval chronicles. The castle is confirmed by historical sources from 1370 that mention the local burgrave Zaklika. The castle was handed over to tenants for the first time by Władysław Jagiełło in 1400. The rural starost office, established on the basis of the Ojców estate, would for most of the time remain in the hands of royal tenants, and the function of starosts was performed by representatives of the most important families of Małopolska. The first royal inspection of 1564 fails to provide any details of the castle, but based on the list of the personnel, it seems that the local starosts did not treat the complex as their residence. The poor condition of the building seems to be confirmed in the inspection report of 1620, “This Ojców castle is totally deserted.” At the same time, the inspectors highlight that some renovation works had already been undertaken by the incumbent starost Mikołaj Koryciński. As follows from some later records, it was a major reconstruction and extention project commenced in 1619 and continued by the starost’s sons, Mikołaj Ferdynand and Stefan Koryciński. The scope of the project by the Koryciński family is explained in the first detailed inspection report of 1660. After the Korycińskis, after 1676, the starost office was filled by the Warszyckis, Męcińskis, and Morskis. The castle, still bustling during the term of the last starost of the Załuski family, fell into total ruin at the turn of the 18th century, and in 1829 its walls began to be dismantled. Later reconstruction projects failed, and preservation works carried out in the late 19th and early 20th century stripped the complex of its many historical elements.

Description

Due to the poor condition of the ruins and incomplete archaeological and architectural research carried out so far, the reconstruction of the spatial arrangement of the castle in its early stages of development is challenging. At the heart of the original stronghold was an octagonal keep (preserved) built of dimension stone on the highest tip of the rock promontory. The three-level keep was about 13 m high. The perimeter wall is probably a 14-th-century structure, too. It runs along the edges of the hill and embraces a spacious courtyard: rectangular in the east and irregular in the west section. The residential building was built on a rocky promontory facing south. The entrance to the castle was from the west, close to the keep. Descriptions from the inspection reports from the 17th and 18th centuries permit the reconstruction of the spatial layout of the castle after the construction project undertaken by the Koryciński family. On the west side, there was a gate house with a passage at the bottom and a chamber at the top (preserved). A wooden bridge led to the gate, resting on three pairs of stone pillars. The Koryciński family raised a magnificent residential building on the foundations of an older residence. It had a rectangular plan with basement and two storeys; it contained a chapel and rooms in a two-bay arrangement. Further to the east, there was a courtyard surrounded by utility buildings touching the perimeter wall; in the centre of it, there was a deep, cased, rock-cut well. The old keep, of little use at that time, towered over the entire castle.

The site is accessible all year round.

Stanisław Kołodziejski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 24/10/2014

Bibliography

  • Frazik J. T., Ruiny zamku w Ojcowie, problemy badawcze i konserwatorskie, “Czasopismo Techniczne Politechniki Krakowskiej”, R. 71, 1966, no. 4, pp. 28-34. 1966.
  • Falniowska-Gradowska A., Dzieje zamku ojcowskiego, Ojców 1999.
  • Kruczek K., Zamek w Ojcowie - wstępne wyniki badań archeologicznych prowadzonych w 1991 roku, [in:] Badania naukowe w południowej części Wyżyny Krakowsko-Częstochowskiej. Materiały konferencyjne - referaty, postery, sesje terenowe. Ojców, 10-11 maja 2001 r., ed. J. Partyka, Ojców 2001, pp. 392-399.
  • Kajzer L., Kołodziejski S., Salm J., Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Warszawa 2001, pp. 338-341.
  • Wojenka M., Zamek ojcowski w świetle archeologii, “Alma Mater”, no. 99/2008, pp. 88-94.

Object data updated by Radosław Białk, Jarosław Bochyński (JB).

Category: castle

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_12_BK.194541, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_12_BK.380029