Website statistics
Visited buildings:633
Described castles:264
Published photos:2432
Listed tournaments:0
 
 
News

August 28th, 2017
Updated: Karpniki

August 19th, 2017
Updated: Lipa

22 March 2015
Listed: Barwałd Górny, Białawoda and Biecz

November 9th, 2013
Added: 18 new castles

November 1st, 2013
New places: 14 new castles



 
 
 
 

Castles in Poland


Castles in Poland is the first website in the world where you can find GPS coordinates of castles in Poland. Their task is to pinpoint castles in Poland, Renaissance palaces or fortified manor houses, because some of Polish monuments are hidden really good.

By design, this website is to be a source of information for tourists and castle-loungers. They will learn about polish castles, Teutonic fortresses, Silesian strongholds, palaces and fortified manor houses. They will also watch pictures of castles, read a short historical description, get information about entrance and parking fees and, last but not least, they will receive precise directions how to get to the interesting castle, palace or manor house. More than once the author of this website informed natives that in their locality there was or still exists castle, palace or fortified manor house.

Now you can find here also a list of KNIGHTS TOURNAMENTS which will take place this year in Poland.

Polish castles


Polish castles - that way authors of many websites call historical buildings in Poland which is not correct because most of them were built by different nations. Indeed they are Polish castles, Teutonic fortresses and Silesian or Czech strongholds.
Often Polish monuments are also described wrong. Names: castle, palace and fortified manor house are confused and they are repeatedly used interchangeably. For this reason the author of this website applies to simple rules in his descriptions:

Castles

 are fortified structures with a courtyard enclosed on four sides. Polish castles were built from the 13th to the end of the 15th century.

Palaces

 are mansions built mostly for presentable reasons. They were not erected for defensive purposes but sometimes such a structures occurred (they are called "palazzo in forteca"). Palaces were built from the 16th century.

Fortified manor houses

 are residential buildings built for defensive purpose. The characteristic features of fortified manor houses are: thick walls with buttresses (however buttresses do not appear in every fortified manor house), no courtyard, minimum of 2 storeys, towers (also do not appear in all manor houses).

All medieval strongholds, Polish castles, Renaissance palaces and fortified manor houses described on this website were built before 1800 and have been personally visited by the author, therefore all the information is reliable and accurate. The author has made further efforts to describe directions the way they are accurate and understandable for all. During voyages across Poland the author uses a car and maps which have a scale of 1:300,000 and 1:200,000.

Pictures of castles


"One picture tells more than 1000 words", therefore numerous photographs of castles published on the website allow quick appraisal of conservation status of Polish castles, Teutonic fortresses and Silesian or Czech strongholds (another words: castles in Poland). I hope that pictures of castles will cause that castles in Poland, palaces and fortified manor houses become a passion for more people.
An index of photographs can be found in pictures of castles section.

Hotels and restaurants


Recently it has become very fashionable to transform castles in hotels or restaurants. The scenario is simple: a wealthy businessman buys the castle ruins from the municipality, rebuilds them and transforms them in hotel or restaurant. In this way the monument is no longer available to a wider range of people and the memory of it fades. That is why I am opposed to the reconstruction of castles. Lets preserve them in the form of a permanent ruins and let the next generation enjoy them.

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