Bąkowiec Castle is a fourteenth-century

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

's castle ruins, located in the

Kraków-Częstochowa Upland The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, also known as the Polish Jurassic Highland or Polish Jura (), is part of the Jurassic System of south–central Poland, stretching between the cities of Kraków, Częstochowa and Wieluń. The Polish Jura borders ...

. The fortress was built as part of the Trail of the Eagles' Nests defence system, located in the village of Morsko,

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

History

Its founders may have been the Morscy knights of the

Topór coat of arms Topór (Polish language, Polish for "axe") is a Polish heraldry, Polish coat of arms. It was used by several ''szlachta'' (noble) families in History of Poland in the Middle Ages, medieval Poland and under the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.Alf ...

Casimir the Great Casimir III the Great (; 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, retaining the title throughout the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king fr ...

, the Koziegłowski family of the

Lis coat of arms Lis (Polish language, Polish for "Fox") is a Polish heraldry, Polish coat of arms. It was used by many szlachta, noble families of Clan Lis. The legend of the coat of arms In 1058 Duke Casimir I the Restorer while chasing the pagan Old Prussian ...

or nobleman

Władysław Opolczyk Vladislaus II of Opole (, , , ; ca. 1332 – 18 May 1401), nicknamed Naderspan, was Duke of Opole from 1356, Count palatine of Hungary (1367–1372), Duke of Wieluń (1370–1392), Governor of Ruthenia (1372–1378), Count palatine of Poland ...

, who held the castle in 1370-1390. The watchtower, which was initially extended over time, was first mentioned in 1389 as the seat of the castle chaplain. In 1391, it was captured by the army of Władyslaw Jagiełło during the battle with Opolczyk, and then passed into the hands of various families, including the Giebułtowski, Włodek, Zborowski and Brzeski families. From the 17th century onwards, the castle fell into disrepair, and in the 20th century measures were taken to influence its present appearance — including reconstruction by the architect Witold Czeczott in the 1930s and the adaptation of the grounds into a holiday resort after 1967. Today, the castle ruins are part of the private ''Morsko Plus Leisure Centre'', which underwent a partial revitalisation after 2015. In 2020, the entire resort was put up for sale.

History

See also