It is immersed in a picturesque landscape with large-area fish ponds.

History

Zator Castle was built in the years 1445-1447 in place of a probable ducal stronghold. The Gothic building was the seat of the Dukes of Zator (until 1513) and later of Polish starosts (tenutarius). The last starost, Fryderyk Piotr Dunin, of the Swan coat of arms, remodelled the castle in the second half of the 17th century. Further changes to the look of the building were made in 1836. At the request of the then owner, Aleksander Potocki, a polonised Italian, Franciszek Maria Lanci, prepared the design in cooperation with the sculptor Parys Filippi. Lanci decided to refer to mediaeval English architecture and made the castle look like a romantic neo-Gothic. Until WW2, the castle was Potockis’ residence. The castle was filled with magnificent historical collections: memorabilia of monarchs (Queen Bona, Stephen Bathory, John III Sobieski, Augustus II the Strong, Napoleon), arms, paintings, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Canaletto, Bacciarelli, sculptures, Egyptian and Greek statues, mosaics and a white marble tombstone with an Arabic inscription, later on discovered in the village of Dwory. During the Nazi occupation, the castle was a camp for German displaced persons. The building was devastated, and the rich art collections were taken away by the Nazis. After 1945 the castle had no landlord, and its chambers were used as a grain, fertiliser, and goods storage. The circumstances changed when, after some controversies, the facility was handed over to the Zootechnics Institute in 1951. In the years 1960-1968, the castle was thoroughly renovated. Today, it houses the research department of the Fisheries Experimental Station of the Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn.

Description

Located in the south-east corner of the city on a slope overlooking the Skawa River, the castle faces west. It is a brick, two-storey structure with partial basement. It has a rectangular plan and annexes at the shorter sides. The avant-corpse in the front façade rises as a tower covered by a tent cupola with a spire and four overhanging turrets. The interiors are decorated with stucco by Kajetan Goliński and the Italian artist Liatti. The south annexe has the shape of a neo-Gothic loggia. The walls of the original castle from the mid-15th century have been almost fully preserved. In the middle of the front façade, there is a protruding tower in the form of an avant-corps. It is one level higher than the entire building, topped with a low crenelation and adorned with small overhanging turrets at the corners. The cornices above the ground floor windows have an ogee shape and the Gozdawa coat of arms of the Wasowicz family. A columned portal leads inside. A neo-Gothic loggia (from 1836) adjoins the castle from the south. It was later altered into a neo-Renaissance one. Inside, two pairs of chambers on both sides on the ground floor attract attention. In 1836 they were richly decorated with valuable paintings and stucco (grotesque) in the so-called Pompeian style by Kajetan Goliński and Liatti. On the left side of the hall, there are the Hunter’s Room and the Golden Room featuring an intricate system of vaults from the turn of the 18th century. The Golden Room reveals some traces of 14-carat gold. On the right, there are the Furn Room and the Ivy Room with barrel vaults and lunettes. A few marble classicist fireplaces have been preserved and a beautiful painted vault in the vestibule. Several doors have beautiful inlay or painted decorations. The entrance gate leads through a neo-Gothic brick wall with crenelation and ornamented with carvings of stone from the area of Zator (including the Renaissance heraldic cartouches of Łodzia, Ostoja, and Jastrzębiec). A one-storey, neo-Gothic outbuilding was built at the gate. On the east side of the castle, on an artificial terrace, there is a geometrically designed, plotted garden. The three lower terraces, on the south and east slopes, form a park with a free, landscape layout. The garden and park complex dates back to 1836, however the oldest records of an ornamental garden in Zator come from 1596. The park covers an area of 7 ha and has over 1000 trees and shrubs, some even 200 years old. Most probably, some trees still remember the beginnings of the geometric Renaissance garden. Currently, over 30 trees in the park are considered natural monuments.

The park is accessible until twilight, the palace – upon consultation with the administrator.

Note by Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 26 X 2014

Bibliography 

• Chrzanowski Tadeusz, Kornecki Marian, Sztuka Ziemi Krakowskiej, Kraków, 1982
• Jaroszewski Tadeusz Stefan, O siedzibach neogotyckich w Polsce, Warszawa, 1981
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce : Vol. 1: Województwo Krakowskie, [1] Tekst, [2] Ilustracje, ed.: Jerzy Szablowski, Warszawa, 1953
• Łoziński Jerzy Zygmunt, Adam Miłobędzki, Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce, Warszawa, 1967
• Marcinek Roman, Zamki, dwory, pałace, Kraków 2000
• Putek Józef, O zbójnickich zamkach, heretyckich zborach i oświęcimskiej Jerozolimie. Szkice z dziejów pogranicza śląsko– polskiego, Kraków, 1938
• Szymska Beata, Dzieje zabytków miasta i okolic Zatora w okresie XVI-XVIII wieku, Kraków, 2004