Nowy Wiśnicz

State of preservation:		The castle has preserved as the whole
Admission:		The entrance to the castle is paid, only beyond the defensive walls you may enter for free. Sightseeing of the castle is possible with the guide only.
Parking:		By the very castle there is a free parking lot
Searching difficulty:		The signposts lead up to the castle, so there is no possibility of losing your way
Access difficulty:		Depending on the parking lot, which you leave Your car on, you go down a flat walking avenue or an asphalt road up a quite sizable hill to the castle
Subjective rating:		Nice castle

Driving directions:

Nowy Wiśnicz is a place located 35 km south-east of Cracow. The easiest way to reach there is to drive down the road no 4 from Cracow to Tarnów and in Bochnia turn right into the road no 965 towards Limanowa. On the way there is Nowy Wiśnicz, in which the signposts lead to the castle.


Historical outline:

The castle was probably built in the second half of the XIVth cent. as the defensive mansion of the Kmit family of the Szreniawa coat of arms. There is a hypothesis, however, that existed a fortified building in Wiśnicz before taken over by the Kmits. There is no sufficient evidence for that since the castle appears for the first time in the written documents from the years of 1396-1397. These were the checks of the mines of Bochnia.
The stronghold was the Kmits’ property till the year of 1553. In 1554 the castle came into the property of the Barzows and the Stadnickis, from whom in 1593 Sebastian Lubomirski repurchased it. The mansion was rebuilt in the years of 1615-1621 by Stanisław Lubomirski, Sebastian’s son. After the completion of the construction work the castle was one the best fortified strongholds in the country. It did not work out however during the raid of the Swedes in the XVIIth cent. when it was destroyed, looted and never regained its former glory.
Till the middle of the XVIIIth cent. the mansion was under the rule of the Lubomirskis, and then the Sanguszkos, the Potockis and the Zamoyskis. The fire from 1831 made the castle deserted and began changing into ruin. In 1901 the stronghold was bought by the Association of the Princes Lubomirski, which started its renovation. After the World War II the castle was taken over by the state, which in 1949 began the restoration of the stronghold. At the present the castle is the property of the Lubomirskis again.


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