Castle of Bishops in Siewierz - a castle formally housing castellans who raised the castle in the thirteenth century. The stronghold formerly fortified a hamlet in the area, which can be traced back to the origins of the Church of St. John the Baptist; now located close to the National Road No. 78 - for rapid travel to Katowice. The names of the first castellans were Jaks and Wawrzyniec. The castle is located in

Siewierz Siewierz is a town in southern Poland, in the Będzin County in the Silesian Voivodeship, seat of Gmina Siewierz. History Siewierz was first mentioned in 1125, and was administered by the Castellan of Bytom. In 1177, Casimir II of Poland grante ...

(31 km north-east of Katowice),

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian V ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

History

The Castle in

was built in the first half of the thirteenth century on a man-made hilltop, where formerly stood a wooden fortress. The oldest of the stronghold's fortifications come from the fifteenth century. In 1443 Duke Wacław I of Cieszyn sold the town and the castle to

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

's bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki. The Bishops of Kraków expanded the castle and its fortification walls. The castle began to crumble in the seventeenth century, and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

raids quickened its deteriorating. After

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 ...

the castle was rebuilt by that didn't stop it from deteriorating and turn into a ruin. The last resident of the castle, Feliks Paweł Turski, left the residence in 1800. The only reason the building did not diminish is due to extensive reconstruction and renovation works in the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century Castles in Silesian Voivodeship Będzin County Gothic architecture in Poland