MIĘDZYRZECZ, CASTLE RUIN VIEW FROM THE EAST

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he old­est and most im­por­tant stronghold on the west­ern bor­der­lands of Poland was prob­a­bly erect­ed in the 9th cen­tu­ry. The fort­ress of Me­si­ri­ci is men­tioned for the first time in the chron­i­cle of the Bish­op of Merse­burg, Thi­et­mar, who de­scribed the ex­pe­di­tion of the Em­per­or Hein­rich II der Hei­li­ge (d. 1024) go­ing to war with pol­ish duke Bo­le­sław Chro­bry (the Brave, d. 1025). Ac­cord­ing to the chron­i­cler, he was sup­posed to stay in a near­by mo­na­ste­ry, but out of re­spect for the ash­es of the holy broth­ers, he was or­dered to save the cap­tured Pi­ast strong­hold. This means that al­ready then there was a cen­ter here which played the role of an im­por­tant watch­tow­er on the west­ern bor­ders of the Pol­ish state. It al­so served as a base for Pi­ast ex­pe­di­tions to West­ern Po­mera­nia and Bran­den­burg, and guard­ed the War­ta riv­er cross­ing as well as trade routes lead­ing from Wiel­ko­pol­s­ka to­wards Ger­many and Sile­sia. Its im­por­tance can be proved by the fact that the first Bene­dic­tine abbey in Poland, men­tioned in Sanc­ti Adal­ber­ti Pra­gen­sis epis­copi et mar­tyris vi­ta pri­or, was lo­cat­ed near­by. Ac­cord­ing to the au­thors of this book, the abbey in Mię­dzy­rzecz was found­ed by St. Adal­bert (one of the three main catholic pa­trons of Poland), and the monks liv­ing there, who were mur­dered in a rob­bery on the night of 10/11 Novem­ber 1003, were de­clared the first mar­tyrs of Poland.

SITUATION ON THE POLISH-SILESIAN-BRANDENBURG BORDERLAND IN THE XIV CENTURY, ORIGIN: A. MICHALAK: ZDOBYCIE MIĘDZYRZECZA...

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he ear­ly me­dieval strong­hold had a cir­cu­lar or ir­reg­u­lar oval shape. It was pro­tect­ed by ram­parts of a hook con­struc­tion, which were about 20 me­ters wide and 10 me­ters high. Ad­ja­cent to it was a low­er town, where ar­chae­ol­o­gists have dis­cov­ered the re­mains of dwel­ling hous­es, black­smith and glass work­shops, baths and a sta­ble. Cham­bers ca­pa­ble of con­tain­ing large quan­ti­ties of grain were al­so found, which would in­di­cate that food had to be stored here for planned war ex­pe­di­tions. Mię­dzy­rzecz came un­der the in­flu­ence of Bran­den­burg and Po­mera­nia in the mid­dle of the 11th cen­tu­ry, but was tak­en away from them by the Pol­ish Duke Bo­le­sław Krzy­wo­usty in 1094.

SKELETON OF A LATE XI CENTURY WARRIOR SHOT FROM A BOW PROBABLY DURING A SIEGE OF THE CASTLE IN 1094

WOODEN SCULPTURES OF ST. ADALBERT AND PIAST WARRIOR IN FRONT OF THE CASTLE IN MIĘDZYRZECZ

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hen Bolesław Krzy­wousty died, Mię­dzy­rzecz was in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the Greater Poland dis­trict, ruled by his son Miesz­ko III the Old (d. 1202). Dur­ing the reign of duke Miesz­ko, the cas­tle was in­vad­ed and burned by the troops of the Ger­man king Fred­er­ick Bar­barossa, al­though some his­tor­i­cal sources state that it was aban­doned and burned by its own crew as well as oth­er strong­holds on the line of the Od­ra Riv­er. Prob­a­bly un­der the rule of duke Prze­my­sław I (d. 1259) a castel­lany was es­tab­lished in Mię­dzy­rzecz and the town's for­ti­fi­ca­tions were strength­ened, and dur­ing the reign of his broth­er, Bo­le­sław the Pious (d. 1279), they were fur­ther ex­pand­ed. But be­fore they were com­plet­ed, the town was in­vad­ed by the Mar­grave of Bran­den­burg, Ot­to V der Lan­ge, who con­quered it, al­though he failed to take the strong­hold. At that time the fort­ress prob­a­bly al­ready had a brick tow­er.

GATE BUILDING AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE MANOR COURTYARD

THE COURTYARD IS DECORATED WITH WOODEN STATUES OF THE FIVE MARTYRS

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t the turn of the 13th and 14th cen­turies the town passed many times from Pi­ast to Bran­den­burg hands and vice ver­sa, and on­ly in 1321 as a re­sult of fights and diplo­mat­ic ef­forts it again merged with Poland for a long time. The cas­tle be­came the seat of the sta­ro­sty, al­though it was still a struc­ture dom­i­nat­ed by wood­en build­ings. It was not un­til around 1340, on the ini­tia­tive of king Ka­zimierz the Great, that the erec­tion of brick cur­tain walls, res­i­den­tial build­ings and for­ti­fi­ca­tion el­e­ments be­gan. This work con­tin­ued for the next three or per­haps even four decades. The new cas­tle, in ad­di­tion to the of­fice of the starost, housed a per­ma­nent roy­al mil­i­tary gar­ri­son. Due to its key lo­ca­tion (bor­der), it was main­tained in a state of con­stant com­bat readi­ness and in lat­er years was sub­ject to many mod­ern­iza­tions. Doc­u­ments men­tion­ing some of the starosts of Mię­dzy­rzecz from that pe­ri­od have sur­vived. In 1390 Wo­j­ciech from Sza­dów was re­ferred to, in the years 1399-1403 Flo­rian from Ko­ryt­ni­ca, then Sę­dzi­wój Os­tro­róg of Na­łęcz Coat of Arms (1403-12, 1413-18, d. 1441), Piotr Tar­cha­ła (1412-13), Jan from Ry­dzy­na (1418-23), Nie­mie­rza from Lu­bosz (1449-66) and Piotr Świd­wa from Sza­mo­tu­ły (1466-73, d. 1473). In 1426 the cas­tle was vis­it­ed by king Wła­dy­sław Ja­gieł­ło.

A PRESENT-DAY WOODEN BRIDGE LEADS TO THE CASTLE

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ur­ing the war be­tween king of Hun­gary Hun­ya­di Má­tyás and king of Bo­he­mia Vla­di­slav II Jag­el­lon­ský and his al­lies: em­per­or Frie­drich III Hab­sub­rg and Ka­zi­mierz Ja­giel­loń­czyk, king of Poland, in 1474 Mię­dzy­rzecz was in­vad­ed and con­quered by the Hun­gar­i­an army sup­port­ed by Si­le­sian troops, in to­tal num­ber­ing about 3000 men. We don't know ex­act­ly who com­mand­ed this at­tack. Ac­cord­ing to some his­to­ri­ans, how­ev­er, the head of the siege was an­oth­er sup­port­er of the Hun­gar­i­an king, Hans II the Mad, Duke of Ża­gan (d. 1504). Ac­cord­ing to oth­ers - Mię­dzy­rzecz was oc­cu­pied by Hun­gar­i­an mag­nate Sza­pol­yai István (d. 1499) and Frie­drich, the duke of Leg­ni­ca (d. 1488). With the help of Hun­gar­i­an sup­port and (pre­sum­ably) tak­ing ad­van­tage of the treach­ery by the bur­grave Sę­dzi­wój Ży­dow­ski, the in­vaders cap­tured the town, which ac­cord­ing to the Pol­ish chron­i­cler Jan Dłu­gosz was care­less­ly guard­ed. The cas­tle sur­ren­dered with­out a fight and per­haps that is why it was not burnt down. Short­ly af­ter this bat­tle, a truce was signed, and the strong­holds and towns cap­tured dur­ing the war re­turned to their right­ful own­ers.

VIEW FROM THE CASTLE WALLS TO THE MANOR COURTYARD

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ess than half a cen­tu­ry lat­er, dur­ing the last Pol­ish-Teu­ton­ic war, in 1520, the strong­hold was con­quered by Wolf von Schön­burg's mer­ce­nary troops num­ber­ing about 10 thou­sand sol­diers, which were head­ing through Mię­dzy­rzecz to­wards the Prus­sian lands of the Or­der. As a re­sult of an in­tense bom­bard­ment by twen­ty Ger­man can­nons, the cas­tle walls were de­stroyed, the build­ings com­plete­ly burned, and the cas­tle crew mur­dered. How­ev­er, the strate­gic lo­ca­tion of the town made it nec­es­sary to re­build it very quick­ly. So still in the first half of the 16th cen­tu­ry the cas­tle was not on­ly re­built but al­so mod­ern­ized. It was equipped with de­fen­sive tow­ers and gal­leries, a gate, res­i­den­tial build­ings and a dec­o­ra­tive Re­nais­sance at­tic. A lit­tle lat­er, in the 60s of the 16th cen­tu­ry, two char­ac­ter­is­tic round bas­tions were built at the en­trance gate, which to­day are a sym­bol of Mię­dzy­rzecz and the most rec­og­niz­able part of the strong­hold. These bas­tions were prob­a­bly erect­ed when Sta­ni­sław Os­tro­róg of Na­łęcz coat of arms (d. 1568) held the post of Mię­dzy­rzecz castel­lan and Jan Słu­żew­ski of Su­li­ma coat of arms (d. 1580) was the head of the lo­cal sta­ro­sty.

THE STAROSTY BUILDING (ON THE RIGHT) AND THE OUTHOUSE, XVIII CENTURY

THE STAROSTY BUILDING, VIEW FROM THE SOUTH

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n 1574 the cas­tle host­ed the first elect­ed king of Poland, Hen­ri de Val­ois (d. 1589), who was on his way from Paris to the cap­i­tal Kra­ków. At the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry the stronghold in Mię­dzy­rzecz be­gan to lose its im­por­tance and de­clined, and the great­est work of its de­struc­tion was done by the Swedes or Bran­den­bur­gians, who oc­cu­pied the town in 1655-56. Al­though there was no fight­ing here, even the short stay of for­eign crews end­ed with its dev­as­ta­tion and the loot­ing of ev­ery­thing of val­ue. In 1691 the then starost Piotr Opa­liń­ski of Ło­dzia coat of arms (d. 1691) made an at­tempt to re­build the seat of his of­fice, but he died soon and the works were stopped. Ac­cord­ing to the de­scrip­tion from 1699, the cas­tle was al­ready aban­doned and very ne­glect­ed: all the build­ings be­long­ing to the res­i­dence are de­sert­ed, the up­per and low­er build­ings have no doors, stairs and gates. Due to the fact that the build­ing was un­in­hab­it­able, sta­rost Ma­ciej Ra­do­mic­ki of Ko­twicz coat of arms (d. 1728) built an ad­ja­cent manor house called Kasz­te­la­nów­ka and in 1719 moved the of­fice of the Mię­dzy­rzecz sta­ro­sty there.

THE CASTLE IN MIĘDZYRZECZ ON A WATERCOLOUR BY CAROL ALBERTI, 1795

VIEW OF THE RUINS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE XIXTH CENTURY, EDWARD RACZYŃSKI "WSPOMNIENIA WIELKOPOLSKI..."

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n­ly the dwellings for the ser­vants were left in the cas­tle. Some of the sur­viv­ing rooms were al­so used as work­shops and ware­hous­es. Lack of in­vest­ment caused fur­ther de­te­ri­o­ra­tion of the fort­ress, which is ev­i­denced by Al­ber­ti's wa­ter­col­ors from 1795 de­pict­ing de­stroyed cas­tle walls and miss­ing roofs of the build­ings. Af­ter the sec­ond par­ti­tion of Poland, the ru­ins were tak­en o­ver by the Prus­sian ad­min­is­tra­tion and leased to the for­mer am­bas­sador of the King­dom of Prus­sia, Gi­ro­la­mo Luc­chie­si­ni (d. 1825). He soon pur­chased the prop­er­ty, but due to his de­par­ture to Aus­tria sold it to a cer­tain Stur­zel from near­by Mię­dzy­chód. Then the cas­tle came in­to the pos­ses­sion of the von Dziem­bow­ski fam­i­ly and re­mained in its own­er­ship un­til 1945. The first of the fam­i­ly was here a Prus­sian cap­tain Stef­fen Au­gust von Dziem­bow­ski (d. 1859), af­ter whom the prop­er­ty and 40 thou­sand thalers was in­her­it­ed by one of his three sons, al­so Stef­fen (d. 1900), a cap­tain of the Prus­sian army and a deputy to the Land­tag. His wife, Ma­rie Con­stan­ze, née Kalck­reuth, died in 1927 in the build­ing of the pre­sent mu­se­um. In 1900 their el­dest son Stef­fen Kon­stan­tin be­came the own­er of the es­tate. Af­ter his child­less death in 1914 the prop­er­ty was tak­en o­ver by his sis­ter's hus­band Lud­wig Frie­drich von Tem­pel­hoff and nephew Con­rad von Tem­pel­hoff, who man­aged it un­til Jan­uary 1945.

RUIN IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

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n the in­ter­war pe­ri­od, at­tempts were made to adapt the cas­tle ru­ins for cul­tur­al pur­pos­es, i. e. the­ater per­for­mances were or­ga­nized in the court­yard. How­ev­er, the first re­search and ren­o­va­tion work was con­duct­ed here on­ly af­ter World War II. In 1954, an ex­ten­sive ar­chae­o­log­i­cal ex­ca­va­tion be­gan, dur­ing which the re­mains of an ear­ly me­dieval cas­tle were dis­cov­ered. Sev­er­al thou­sand ar­ti­facts of great his­tor­i­cal val­ue were al­so found, in­clud­ing 33 whole shoes, an al­most com­plete skele­ton of an 11th cen­tu­ry war­rior (see pho­to above), and a 3rd cen­tu­ry gem­ma with the im­age of the Ro­man em­per­or Gor­dian III (d. 244), one of on­ly two of its kind pre­served in the world. Af­ter the ex­ca­va­tions end­ed, the cas­tle walls were re­in­forced and the res­i­den­tial build­ing and bas­tions un­der­went re­con­struc­tion. In the 1970s and 1980s, a new bridge was built and the bas­tions were cov­ered with char­ac­ter­is­tic tent roofs.

VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE EAST, IN THE 1960S AND TODAY

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he cas­tle was sit­u­at­ed to the west of the town in a nat­u­ral­ly de­fen­si­ble en­vi­ron­ment among mar­shy mead­ows and flood­plains, on a mound. Ear­ly me­dieval wood­en-earth for­ti­fi­ca­tions were used for its con­struc­tion. With the ex­cep­tion of the north­ern side, where the straight line of the walls runs along the hill­side, all the oth­er sec­tions of the cur­tain were built on the ram­parts of the ear­ly me­dieval cas­tle. How­ev­er, due to the risk of these ram­parts sub­sid­ing, the Goth­ic walls were sta­bi­lized by sup­port­ing them on deeply dug stilts. This re­sult­ed in a horse­shoe-shaped lay­out, im­posed by the shape of the hill and the lo­ca­tion of old­er for­ti­fi­ca­tions.

PLAN OF MIĘDZYRZECZ IN THE MIDDLE AGES: 1 . THE CASTLE, 2. THE LOWER TOWN, 3. THE PARISH CHURCH, 4. THE OBRA GATE,
5. THE HIGH GATE, 6. THE MILL GATE, 7. OBRA RIVER, 8. PAKLICA RIVER

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re­sum­ably, the first brick com­po­nents of the cas­tle were the 13th-cen­tu­ry gate and the cylin­dri­cal tow­er stand­ing next to it. In the mid­dle of the 14th cen­tu­ry the wood­en-earth for­ti­fi­ca­tions were re­placed by a wall about 2.5 me­ters thick and 145 me­ters long, made of brick and prob­a­bly topped with a crenel­la­tion. A res­i­den­tial house stood in the west­ern part of the court­yard. The lay­out of the cas­tle was com­ple­ment­ed with wood­en util­ity build­ings at­tached to the walls. It was prob­a­bly not un­til the 15th cen­tu­ry that two small half-open tow­ers were added to the west­ern part of the walls (near the res­i­den­tial house), and in the east­ern part - a quadri­lat­er­al build­ing, which could have been used as a gate tow­er. The cas­tle was sur­round­ed by a moat fed by the Ob­ra Riv­er, about 12 me­ters wide, o­ver which a wood­en draw­bridge was built on the east­ern side of the strong­hold.

GATES LEADING TO THE CASTLE COURTYARD

WESTERN FRAGMENT OF WALLS WITH FOUNDATIONS OF THE OLDEST RESIDENTIAL BUILDING

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he Goth­ic cas­tle func­tioned un­til 1520, when, af­ter be­ing de­stroyed by Ger­man in­vaders, it was re­built in the Re­nais­sance style by the de­ci­sion of Zyg­munt Sta­ry (Sig­is­mund the Old), and adapt­ed for the use of fire­arms and ar­til­lery. The cas­tle wall was then thick­ened and equipped with loop­holes, while the ar­cha­ic me­dieval tow­ers were prob­a­bly de­mol­ished. It is al­so pos­si­ble that the Goth­ic west­ern house was de­mol­ished as well, and its func­tions could have been tak­en o­ver by a new three-storey build­ing sit­u­at­ed in the south­east­ern part of the court­yard. Next to it, by the south­ern part of the wall, stood a half-tim­bered kitchen and ac­com­pa­ny­ing wood­en util­i­ty build­ings.

PLAN OF THE CASTLE ACCORDING TO B. GUERQUIN (WITHOUT THE NORTHERN BASTION): 1. ENTRANCE GATE,
2. SOUTHERN BASTION, 3. GATE BUILDING/GUARDHOUSE, 4. RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS (16th c.)

VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE WEST

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n the sec­ond half of the 16th cen­tu­ry the gate tow­er was adapt­ed to a guard­house. The en­trance to the cas­tle was moved a few me­ters to the south and a new gate and a pedes­tri­an wick­et were built. These changes were caused by the de­ci­sion to build two ar­tillery bas­tions with a di­am­e­ter of about 11 me­ters and a height of about 9 me­ters, which were added to the east­ern cur­tain and flanked the north­ern, east­ern and south­ern sec­tions of the walls and se­cured a short pas­sage­way lead­ing to the cas­tle. The bas­tions were equipped with shoot­ing stands for ten can­nons and posts for small arms, from where up to a hun­dred sol­diers could fire si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly. These 16th cen­tu­ry for­ti­fi­ca­tions aroused jus­ti­fied ad­mi­ra­tion and placed the strong­hold in Mię­dzy­rzecz among the best for­ti­fied cas­tles in the west­ern part of Poland.

NORTHERN BASTION, VIEW FROM THE NORTHEAST AND GALLERY ON THE SECOND FLOOR

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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ur­rent­ly, the Goth­ic cas­tle is rep­re­sent­ed by the perime­ter walls, re­mains of the west­ern dwelling house, as well as the foun­da­tions of the cylin­dri­cal tow­er. The low­er parts of the Re­nais­sance build­ings and the old­er gate, par­tial­ly in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the north­ern bas­tion and re­stored, have al­so sur­vived. The most char­ac­ter­is­tic el­e­ments of the cas­tle's ar­chi­tec­ture are two mas­sive bas­tions sit­u­at­ed on both sides of the en­trance gate, which in the sec­ond half of the 20th cen­tu­ry were cov­ered with cylin­dri­cal roofs in­evitably as­so­ci­at­ed with hudge Chi­nese hats. There is al­most no ex­hi­bi­tion in the cas­tle. Apart from a small tor­ture cham­ber in the south­ern bas­tion, we vis­it on­ly the bare walls.

VIEW FROM THE COURTYARD TO THE GUARDHOUSE AND THE GATE (ON THE RIGHT)

"TORTURE CHAMBER" IN THE SOUTHERN BASTION

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u­se­um ex­hi­bi­tions, al­though on­ly to a small ex­tent di­rect­ly re­lat­ed to the his­to­ry of the cas­tle and its in­hab­i­tants, are lo­cat­ed in the for­mer star­ost's build­ing and the manor out­build­ing stand­ing near­by. They house the Mu­se­um of Mię­dzy­rzec Land, which pre­sents ar­chae­o­log­i­cal col­lec­tions, eth­no­graph­ic ex­hi­bi­tions de­vot­ed to the cul­ture of the in­dige­nous Pol­ish pop­u­la­tion and their cul­tur­al her­itage, as well as ex­hibits of great his­tor­i­cal and artis­tic val­ue, in­clud­ing mil­i­taria, old prints, por­trait paint­ings, sacral sculp­tures, etc.

MUSEUM IN MIĘDZYRZECZ, FRAGMENT OF HISTORICAL-ETHNOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

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ar­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy is Poland's largest col­lec­tion of Sar­ma­tian cof­fin por­traits and epi­taphs, de­pict­ing Pol­ish no­ble­men liv­ing in the Mię­dzy­rzecz re­gion in the 17th and 18th cen­turies, as well as no­ble­men of Ger­man ori­gin who, liv­ing on the out­skirts of of Poland, adopt­ed this typ­i­cal­ly Pol­ish cus­tom. This col­lec­tion al­so in­cludes a glob­al­ly unique gallery de­pict­ing de­ceased chil­dren. In ad­di­tion to the ru­ins of the cas­tle and the mu­se­um build­ings, the mu­se­um com­plex al­so in­cludes a gate­house re­con­struct­ed af­ter war dam­age, an 18th-cen­tu­ry manor inn (lo­cat­ed be­hind the is­land) and a his­toric land­scape park, where the main walk­ing route was cre­at­ed by a mag­nif­i­cent plane tree al­ley.

EXHIBITION OF COFFIN PORTRAITS, CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS BELOW

Tick­ets are re­quired for en­try to the cas­tle and mu­se­um. The en­trance to the park and the manor court­yard is free.

The ex­hibits are free to pho­to­graph. Flash may not be used.

It is for­bid­den to bring an­i­mals both to the ru­ins and to the mu­se­um. You can walk your dog in the park, but it should be on a leash.

There are no of­fi­cial flight bans in the area. Watch out for trees and birds, which es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son need some peace and qui­et.

"CASTRUM DOLORIS"

GETTING THERE

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iędzyrzecz is a small town lo­cat­ed about 50 km south­east of Go­rzów Wiel­ko­pol­s­ki. There is a rail sta­tion here (1.5 km from the ru­ins). The cas­tle is lo­cat­ed slight­ly west of the cen­ter, on Pod­zam­cze Street.

I rec­om­mend park­ing on Młyń­ska street (300 me­ters from the ru­ins) or park­ing near­by on Gar­ncar­s­ka street. You can ride a bi­cy­cle in the park.

Ac­cess by bi­cy­cle ac­cord­ing to di­rec­tions as above.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. S. Adamczyk: Międzyrzecz i Skwierzyna na pograniczu dziejów, 1995
2. W. Dramowicz: Z dziejów rodu Dziembowskich herbu Pomian z powiatu międzyrzeckiego, NRHA 2/7
3. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
4. A. Michalak: Zdobycie Międzyrzecza w 1474 roku w świetle wybranych militariów
5. T. Jurek: Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziem polskich w Średniowieczu
6. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019

IN THE CASTLE PARK

Castles nearby:
Świebodzin - ducal castle from the 13th/14th century, rebuilt, 26 km
Łagów - castle of the Knights of St. John from the 14th century, 29 km
Zbąszyń - remains of bastion castle from the 15th-17th centuries, 34 km

text: 2022
photographs: 2018, 2019, 2021
© Jacek Bednarek