Babice - Lipowiec Castle

State of preservation:		Picturesque ruins
Admission:		To enter the castle you must settle admission fee
Parking:		The parking lot is only by the entrance to the heritage park and offers not much parking space
Searching difficulty:		The tower of the castle is visible from a distance
Access difficulty:		As to reach the castle you must go up a steep hill. You can do it by choosing yellow trail in the place of former stairs (more difficult) or take a roundabout forest route
Subjective rating:		Nice ruins

Driving directions:

Driving down the road no 180 from Cracow to Auschwitz you can observe the tower of the castle from a distance, on the right side of the road, at the hilltop, among trees. You only ought to set your sights on or follow the signposts.


Historical outline:

The original history of the castle was not completely revealed thus far. Present castle was built at the end of the XIIIth century by the bishop Jan Muskata. Earlier in this place was supposed to be found a wooden castle, which was the staging area for local brigands. This castle was apparently conquered by the duke owning these lands and was offered to cracovian bishopric. In its place Jan Prandota built a wooden castle in the middle of the XIIIth cent., which subsequently was replaced with a stone building.
In the XVIIth cent. the castle was affected by various calamities every now and then: to begin with the fire in 1629, then a rebuilt stronghold was seized in 1655 by the Swedes who retreating after two years, burnt it down again.
Till the end of the XVIIIth cent. the castle was the property of cracovian bishopric, which used it as, among others, episcopal prison, and later as the reformatory for the clergymen infringing canon law.
The stronghold began to fall into ruin after taking it over by the Austrian occupation authorities for the Treasury, and its eventual fate was sealed by the fire from 1800. The present appearance of the castle we owe to restoration work from the years of 1961-1975.




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