The Będzin Castle is a castle in

Będzin Będzin (; also ''Bendzin'' in English; german: Bendzin; yi, בענדין, Bendin) is a city in the Dąbrowa Basin, in southern Poland. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza River (a tributary of the Vistula). Even though pa ...

in southern

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 ...

. The stone castle dates to the 14th century, and is predated by a wooden fortification that was erected in the 11th century. It was an important fortification in the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...

and later, the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

History

The village of

originated in the 9th century.Zamek gotycki z XIV wieku w Będzinie
. Retrieved on 19 July 2007. The local wooden fort, that the records show existed as early as the 11th century,
Retrieved on 19 July 2007. was destroyed during the

Tatar invasion This article lists conflicts in Europe during the invasions of and subsequent occupations by the Mongol Empire and its successor states. The Mongol invasion of Europe took place in the 13th century. This resulted in the occupation of much of Easter ...

in 1241 and subsequently rebuilt. During the reign of

Casimir III the Great Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He ...

the castle received an upgrade from wooden fortress to a stone one. The stone castle was operational as early as in 1348.Zamek Królewski w Będzinie
/ref> The growing trading village of Bytom was given

Magdeburg Law Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

city rights shortly afterwards, in 1358. The castle was meant to be a military outpost on the southwestern border of the

(later, the

). It was the most westward fortification, and was meant to hold off any invasion coming to

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

from Bohemian or

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 ...

n lands. In 1364 the castle was visited by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1588,

Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria Maximilian III of Austria, briefly known as Maximilian of Poland during his claim for the throne (12 October 1558 – 2 November 1618), was the Archduke of Further Austria from 1612 until his death. Biography Born in Wiener Neustadt, Maximilian ...

, was held prisoner in here, after his defeat in the

War of the Polish Succession (1587–1588) The War of the Polish Succession or the Habsburg-Polish War took place from 1587 to 1588 over the election of the successor to the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory. The war was fought between factions of Sigismund III V ...

. The castle fell into disrepair in the late 16th century. The fire of 1616 and damage 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 ...

in 1657 resulted in the further destruction. The fortress was periodically repaired, but due to shifts in the layout of the borders and relations between Poland and its neighbours, it lost much of its importance. After the partitions of Poland, Będzin fell into

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n control and the castle became property of the Hohenzollern family.Będzin: History and monuments
. Retrieved on 19 July 2007. In 1807, the nearby lands were transferred to the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

, and in 1815, to the Congress Poland. In 1825 the castle was virtually falling apart, and when a piece of the stone crushed a passerby, demolition of the castle was ordered, but before it was started, the castle was declared a monument. In the 1830s the castle was bought by Count Edward Raczyński and partially rebuilt, with a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church temporarily housed inside, but after Raczyński's death in 1845 plans to open an academy or a hospital there were abandoned, and the castle once again fell into disrepair. The castle was not rebuilt again until the times of People's Republic of Poland, when in 1952–1956, a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

was opened there.

Museum

The castle became the site of a

, Zagłębie Museum in 1956.MUZEUM ZAGŁĘBIA W BĘDZINIE
Retrieved on 19 July 2007. The museum has several collections: one of armament, from medieval to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

times; second dedicated to the history of the Będzin Castle; third to the castles of the other nearby castles founded by Casimir the Great (

Eagle Nests Trail The Trail of the Eagles' Nests ( pl, Szlak Orlich Gniazd) of south-western Poland, is a marked trail along a chain of 25 medieval castles between Częstochowa and Kraków. The Trail of the Eagles' Nests was first marked by Kazimierz Sosnowski. Si ...

or ''Szlak Orlich Gniazd'') and the final one, to the military history of the Będzin region.

Architecture

The castle has two towers, a cylindrical one and a square one. Smaller buildings were attached to the towers. There were three layers of walls, and the castle was connected to the

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s, parts of which survived till today.

Gallery

File:Zamek w Będzinie Napoleon Orda.jpg, ''Będzin Castle'' by

Napoleon Orda Napoleon Mateusz Tadeusz Orda ( be, Напалеон Орда; lt, Napoleonas Orda; 11 February 1807 – 26 April 1883) was a Polish-Lithuanian musician, pianist, composer and artist, best known for numerous sketches of historical sites of the ...

, 1881 File:Będzin w okresie międzywojennym - 05.jpg, Będzin Castle and a synagogue in the interwar period File:Bedzin Zamek JS3250912.jpg, General view of the castle File:Bedzin zamek 03.jpg, The castle's tower File:Będzin, Zamek.JPG, The castle at dusk

References

External links