Rzeszów Castle is one of the main landmarks of

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...

. It was rebuilt between 1902 and 1906, and it is located on the former grounds of the castle of the

House of Lubomirski A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

. The castle is located between Aleja Pod Kasztanami and Aleja Lubomirski, Chopin Street, Śreniawitów Square, and Colonel Lis-Kula Street. Currently the castle houses the seat of the

provincial court The provincial and territorial courts in Canada are local trial "inferior" or "lower" courts of limited jurisdiction established in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. These courts typically hear criminal, civil (or “small claims� ...

; the building housed a prison until 1981. An early fortress stood on the castle's grounds in the sixteenth century. At the end of the same century,

Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza (c. 1562–1637) was a Polish–Lithuanian noble ( szlachcic). He was castellan of Czechów, Żarnów, Sandomierz and was owner of Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city ...

built a

Motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

close to the current castle's location. In 1620 he expanded the castle into a "Palazzo in fortezza". Since 1637 the castle was put under the ownership of the

. Most of the building works were done by

Tylman van Gameren Tylman van Gameren, also ''Tilman'' or ''Tielman'' and Tylman Gamerski, (Utrecht, 3 July 1632 – c. 1706, Warsaw) was a Dutch-born Polish architect and engineer who, at the age of 28, settled in Poland and worked for Queen Marie Casimire, wi ...

and Karol Henryk Wiedemann. In 1820 the complex was brought under

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

authorities; which adapted the building for a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

and a prison. The building was deconstructed at the beginning of the twentieth century due to its poor state. The only parts left from the original complex are the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

and

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

fortifications. The Lubomirski Palace is located close to the Castle.

History of the castle

Possession of Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza

The founder of the Castle was the

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

Czchów Czchów ( yi, טשיכוב-Chekhoiv, german: Weißenkirchen) is a town in Brzesko County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,288 inhabitants as of December 2021. It lies on the Dunajec river, and along National Road Nr. 75. In the years 1 ...

and

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Provi ...

Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza. The land was partially owned

's Elżbieta Komarnicka, widow of Adam Rzeszowski. The rest of the nearby lands were owned by Elżbieta's sisters - Katarzyna and Zofia.

Primordial embankments

The capital of Rzeszów's lands was located on a

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

hill, in between

Wisłok Wisłok is a river in south-eastern Poland, a tributary of the San River, with a length of 220 kilometres and a basin area of 3,538 km2 (all in Poland). The root of the name ''Vis-lok'' is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European. The first meta ...

flood waters, allowing natural defences. The residence was located on top of a cliff side, in the town of Ligęza. If such complex existed, it would have stone fortifications and wooden farm houses in the centre. The fortress' courtyard was made of mud and wood, strengthened by wooden towers, located in its corners. The Ligęza fortress was expanded during the sixteenth century, whose fortifications are still currently found.

First defensive fortress

Not a lot is known about the initial construction of Ligęza's fortress (castle). No information about the architect nor scripture of the fortress has been preserved. Most of the information gathered about the complex is of the

stock-taking Stock-taking or "inventory checking" or "wall-to-wall" is the physical verification of the quantities and condition of items held in an inventory or warehouse. This may be done to provide an audit of existing stock. It is also the source of stock ...

done by Zygmund Hendel in 1897. The main building of the complex was fortified with walls, it had several levels and a double-courtyard located in the northern part of the complex. The complex's

floor plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

was similar to that of a

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

. Close by to the complex there was a number of warehouses - whose function remains uncertain. The whole complex and warehouses were surrounded by a thick defensive wall - whose thickness passed 1,5

metres The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

. The three parts of the complex (east, west and south) all had

postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern ...

s with battery artillery. The fortification was strengthened by a

, located in the south-east corner of the complex's

formation. It is likely that another one stood in the south-west of the complex. There is no other identification for the former existence of two other

s, although during Ligęza's reign they might have been planned. The gate which allowed access to head into the castle was located, where it currently is, in the middle of the western wall. The main reason for Ligęza to build such powerful and well defended fortress may have been to so to underline his importance, authority and wealth, making his fortress and fortifications to have a greater role for repressing the people, and accepting his reign, than actually serving as a defensive fortress. Such perception can be strengthened by the accounts of his nephew - Andrzej Ligęza, who tried to become his successor. In 1603, he marched his army into

- devastating the walls, burned the warehouses and began besieging the castle - which was successful after a few days. Mikołaj Ligęza addressed the situation by devastating Andrzej's property in Staroniwa and Zwieńczyca. In effect Andrzej had

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

, regaining the castle. In the following years, Mikołaj Ligęza had continued his scuffles with

Stanisław Stadnicki Stanisław Stadnicki (c. 1551 in Nowy Żmigród or Dubiecko – 1610 in Tarnawiec), a Polish nobleman, Lord Starosta of Żygwulsko (Sigulda), a known troublemaker, called 'the Devil of Łańcut' (Polish: ''diabeł łańcucki'') for his violent ...

of Łańcut (1600-1605), and with his son Władysław (1617-1619). All of these clashes meant that, after 1620, when Mikołaj Ligęza became a

, he ordered for a reconstruction of the castle.

Palazzo in fortezza

The newly reconstructed castle was built in the newly popular Palazzo in fortezza architectural form. The

was built up with

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

s and

s in a New-Italian style, built up with stone and

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropolit ...

; some parts with

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. The former defensive walls were incorporated as inner walls of the castle. This allowed the castle to have an additional defensive wing. The investment was never finished, however its modernisation allowed for new batteries to be constructed; this had allowed the castle to successfully be defended against by a raid of

Tartars Tartary ( la, Tartaria, french: Tartarie, german: Tartarei, russian: Тартария, Tartariya) or Tatary (russian: Татария, Tatariya) was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bounde ...

. During the reconstruction, the castle had been protected by a full army. The fortifications had been additionally encircled by a wood and partially stone settlements including Mrowla, Świlcza, Krasne and Malawa. Mikołaj Ligęza died in 1637. In his testament to his wife he said: ''fortify the castle and call it the Ligęza's and moat it all'', ('' aby zamku domurowała i po wieczne czasy Ligęzowem nazwała i obwałować kazała'',

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

House of Lubomirski

Ligęza signed off his castle to his daughters: Pudancja and Konstancja. However, due to the decision taken up by the

Crown Tribunal The Crown Tribunal ( pl, Trybunał Główny Koronny, la, Iudicium Ordinarium Generale Tribunalis Regni) was the highest appellate court in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland for most cases. Exceptions were if a noble landowner was threatened with ...

, all of the estate was only given to the Konstancja. This caused scuffles between Pudancja's and Konstancja's husbands; as Konstancja's husband - Court Marshall of the Crown

Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski Prince Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (20 January 1616 – 31 December 1667) was a Polish noble (szlachcic), magnate, politician and military commander, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the initiator of the Lubomirski Rebellion of 1665 ...

took over the estate. He was an active politician and military commander of the Anti-Crown Opposition. During his reign, the castle did not have military importance, this also included the

Łańcut Castle Łańcut Castle is a complex of historical buildings located in Łańcut, Poland. Historically the residence of the Pilecki, Lubomirski and Potocki families, the complex includes a number of buildings and is surrounded by a park. The castle is o ...

- an important residence; this state must have been caused by the castle's devastation. The fortifications were greatly devastated by the

Swedes Swedes ( sv, svenskar) are a North Germanic ethnic group native to the Nordic region, primarily their nation state of Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countr ...

during

The Deluge The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microc ...

, as well as the

army during a rebellion in 1663. Additional damage was caused during a war with the

Cossacks The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

. After Lubomirski took on a bannire, he was expelled and moved to

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, which caused the fortifications in

not to be reconstructed. When Ulryk Werdum passed through the town in 1671 he described it as: ''In the suburb there stands a beautiful church, and even a better one in town, both made of stone .. The castle, a cumbrous structure, stands to the south by the lake. All of these places were in a very good state before the war with the Cossacks, after it everything seems to be abandoned.'' (''Na przedmieściu stoi śliczny kościół, a jeszcze lepszy w mieście, obydwa z kamienia .. Ciężko zbudowany zamek wznosi się na południe od miasta nad jeziorem. Wszystko to znajdowało się w bardzo dobrym stanie przed wojną kozacką, teraz zaś po niej wszystko jest opuszczone.''

) Jerzey Lubomirski died in 1667, giving the estate to his son,

Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski Prince Hieronim Augustyn Lubomirski (1648–1706) was a Polish noble (szlachcic), magnate, politician and famed military commander. He was a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire SRI. Son of Grand Marshal and Hetman Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and ...

. In the first few years after his father's death, Hieronim took on dealing with war specialised equipment and crafts - he fought with the

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

and

. Only up until about 1682, did he begin works on reconstructing the castle in

, which he entrusted to

Expansion of the castle by Tylman van Gameren

Due to many battles in the region of

, such as the battles with

and

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

, the castle's military significance rose. He agreed, after raising the issue at the

Sejmik A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; lt, seimelis) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Pol ...

, that he will spend three years to rebuild the castle's fortifications. As stated in Tylman's plans, the castle was rebuilt in a

formation, with four wings both having two levels each, protected by a

ravelin A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a ''demi-lune'', after the ''lunette'', the ravelin is placed outside a castle ...

at the castle's southern wing. The courtyard's levels had a facade in the central part of the structure. They were finished off by

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...