Niedzica Castle
| Niedzica Castle | ||
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 Castle Niedzica of the Czorsztyn Reservoir seen from |
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| Alternative name (s): | Dunajec Castle, Zamek Dunajek | |
| Creation time : | 1310 | |
| Castle type : | Hilltop castle | |
| Conservation status: | Castle with museum and hotel | |
| Place: | Niedzica | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 25 '20.9 " N , 20 ° 19' 11" O | |
| Height: | 546 m | |
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The Niedzica Castle (also called Dunajec Castle , Polish Zamek Dunajec , German called Nisitz Castle ) is a fortress near Niedzica on the Czorsztyn reservoir in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship .
history
The hill fort was built around 1310 by Kokosz Berzeviczy to fortify the northern border of the Kingdom of Hungary . He had settled Zamagurze in the region of Pogórze Spiskie on behalf of King Charles I Robert of Hungary . To protect the border between Hungary and Poland and the transition over the Dunajec River , he had a watchtower erected opposite the Czorsztyn Castle , which consisted of an earth wall with wooden palisades. In 1327/28 the tower came into the possession of Wilhelm Drugeth , who started building a brick castle here before 1330. This novum castrum de Dunajecz can be equated with the Upper Castle, which is still preserved today . This consists of a four-story keep and a curtain wall . In the Upper Castle there is also a 60.5 m deep well, around which the legend of Brunhilde is entwined.
After the death of Wilhelm Drugeth († 1342), the castle came back into the possession of the Berzeviczy family from the Łomnica line. During this period, which lasted about 100 years, a chapel was built over the cistern and the castle was surrounded by another wall and a gate bastion (this represents today's Middle Castle ). Between 1463 and 1470 the castle was owned by the Zupan of Spiš , Emeryk Zápolya . He also worked as a builder in the castle. Under him, the keep was raised and a house was built outside the previous walls, which was protected by a wide defensive wall and had a gate bastion on the south side (this is the oldest part of the Lower Castle today ).
Fighting took place for the castle between the candidates competing for the Hungarian throne. The castle was first conquered by supporters of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria . In 1528 it was conquered by Piotr Kostka from Orawa for Johann Zápolya , who was King of Hungary from 1526 to 1540. Zápolya handed over the office of the Zupan of Spiš, including Kiezmark and Niedzica, to Jan Łaski , Grand Chancellor and Primate of Poland, who had left the court of King Sigismund the Elder and in the service of Johann Zápolya made a diplomatic mission to Sultan Suleyman I and Hungary saved from a Tartar attack. In 1541 the goods passed to his son Olbracht Łaski. This sold Dunajec in 1589 to Jerzy Horváth from Palosca. On a plaque above the portal of Donajec Castle, he remembers: The Lord of Pławca, Dunajec and Lendak took care of, armed and enlarged the castle in 1601. He also rebuilt the castle in the Renaissance style. The new inner courtyard, lined with colonnades, was surrounded on two sides by semicircular attic bastions. A round bastion was added to the northwest corner and the former gate bastion was modernized. The western and northern foreland were also fortified. Until 1776 the castle came into the possession of tenants, including the Giovanelli family, supporters of the Counter Reformation . Two baroque chapels were installed below them, one of them by Josef Giovanelli in the Gothic walls of the earlier chapel.
After the Horváths' family castle burned down in 1817, they moved back into the Niedzica castle. They redesigned the castle to resemble a country residence for Hungarian magnates . The Upper Castle remained in ruins and the chapel was moved to the former gate bastion of the Lower Castle. A ballroom was built in the residential wing of the Lower Castle under Andrzey Horváth. After his death († 1828), the castle became the property of his brother Ferdinand († 1857). From this the property passed through the daughter Kornelia to Alex Alama Salamon, with whom she had been married since 1834. The last owner was Countess Ilona Bethelen Salomon, widow of Geza Alapi Salamon (grandson of Alex Salamon). In the interwar years, she renewed the courtyard of the Lower Castle, created a park around the castle and also a family cemetery. She had to leave the castle in 1943 and could not come back († 1964). After 1945 the castle was looted by the Soviet army and local residents. Then the castle was nationalized. In 1949 the administration was taken over by the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art and left to the Association of Art Historians for use. The castle remained in the possession of Hungarian families until 1945, although the area was assigned to Poland after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire in 1920.
Niedzica Castle today
Large-scale conservation work was carried out on the castle between 1949 and 1983 under the direction of the Krakow Circle of Conservators and Art Historians , under the direction of Alfred Majewski. Archaeological and architectural investigations were carried out in their train, so that today the building history of the castle can be considered well researched. 1980–1995 further protection work was carried out on the castle hill to prevent the castle from being damaged by the construction of the Czorsztyn reservoir, in which the water of the Dunajec was dammed up by 50 m.
A castle museum has been located here since 1963 and you can see the Upper and Middle Castle. For this museum a rich set of furniture and pictures was put together again. A hotel and apartments are located in the Lower Castle; these components can only be viewed from the outside. The complex also includes a carriage museum and other agricultural buildings.
particularities
In 1946 a " kipu " script ( bundle of straps with knots and small gold sheets) was found under a threshold of the gate leading to the middle castle ; This knot script is said to speak of a treasure of the Incas . The kipu was found by Andrzei Benesz. Witness of the find was Franticiszek Szydlak, a Gorale from Spiš. According to his legendary stories, Sebastian Berzeviczy - a descendant of the previous owner family, who traveled to Peru at the end of the 18th century and was married to an Indian woman - brought the kipu to Niedzica. From this marriage the daughter Umina emerged, who is said to have married the last descendant of the royal family of the Incas - Tupac Amaru II .
The castle was also the location of the films Janosik , Wakacje z duchami (Summer Holidays with Ghosts) and Biała dama (White Lady) , in which the above events were filmed.
Coats of arms of the families of the castle owners
literature
- Stanislaw Michalczuk (translated by Elizbieta Sierosławska) (2007): The Dunajec Castle in Niedzica . Wrocław, Wydawnictwo ZET, ISBN 978-83-7364-326-0 .
