he castle in Radziki was probably built in 1380-84 on the initiative of the castellan Andrzej Ogończyk (d. ca. 1395), or - according to older historical studies - only after 1413, when Jakusz Ogończyk (d. 1435) inherited from his father Mikołaj of Kutno a village with the adjacent property. This small fortress was in the hands of the family until the middle of the 16th century, but already a hundred years earlier it had been destroyed by the Teutonic Knights during the Thirteen Years' War. It was rebuilt in second half of the 15th century. Around 1510 Mikołaj Radzikowski (d. 1520), grandson of Jakusz, modernised the castle and gave it a Renaissance look. When in 1525 Jan Radzikowski, the last male representative of the family, died childless, the estate was inherited by his sister Małgorzata, wife of Piotr Plecki from Dąbrowa. In 1540, as a result of the division of the Radziki estate, the castle became the property of Radziki Duże with two manors and a forest. In 1564, the son of Piotr and Małgorzata, Stanisław Plecki, was already the owner of Radziki, and after him - Barbara, presumably the only child of Stanisław, who married Walenty Kuczyński and brought him a village with the local estate as a dowry.
REMAINS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN WALL
A
t the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries the owner of Radziki was the Rolicz Tarnowski family from Kujawy. The castle, destroyed during the Polish-Swedish wars, lost its residency status, and circa 1770 it was abandoned and fell into ruin. At that time it belonged to Franciszek and Kazimierz (d. 1845) Przeciszewscy. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries the bricks from castle walls were used to build the classicistic manor house erected right next to the ruins. In 1839 the indebted estate was purchased by
Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski (d. 1871), the author of book The Mother's Curse, in which he described the history of the castle and its inhabitants. After Dmochowscy, the manor house was taken over by the Siemiątkowski family and after the Second World War it became the property of the local government, which placed a school there. The remains of the medieval stronghold were preserved in the 1950s as a permanent ruin.
he castle in Radziki, although at the beginning of its existence it was the most impressive noble nest in the whole Dobrzyń Land, represented a simple type of a knightly fortified settlement, where the house was surrounded by a wall, and one curtain was also a wall of the building. It was erected on a square plan with a side of about 29 meters, in the lower parts made of stones and above of bricks. The castle occupied an area of 830 square meters, surrounded by a wall with a two-storey residential house with three rooms on each floor, and wooden residential and utility buildings standing along the wall from the courtyard side. The entrance to the castle led through a gateway located in the south-western wall, and the access to it was protected by a drawbridge and a moat irrigated from a nearby pond.
PLAN OF THE RUINS IN RADZIKI DUŻE
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CASTLE FROM THE XV CENTURY ACCORDING TO M. ARSZYŃSKI AND J. SALM
o this day, an external walls of the castle has survived, 5 to 8 meters high, with the remains of shooting holes, architectural details and windows, but only three of these windows have medieval origins (the others were made in the 19th and 20th centuries). There are no internal divisions of the apartment house, and the only mementoes left are the modest relics of the vaults in the cellars that are no longer accessible. A few dozen meters west of the castle stands a beautifully renovated classicist manor house of the Przeciszewscy, today the seat of the primary school named after famous Polish traveler Tony Halik.
ONCE THE PRZECISZEWSCY'S MANOR HOUSE, AND NOW A SCHOOL
The ruin is located on the school area, but access to it, even on holidays, should not be restricted.
You can visit it together with your dog.
It would be a good idea to ask the school management for permission to fly.... unless we are going to do it when the school is closed. No legal restrictions.
CASTLE RUIN IN RADZIKI DUŻE
GETTING THERE
R
adziki Duże is a village situated halfway between Golub and Brodnica towns, from where there is a bus service. The ruin stands in the eastern part of the village, on a hill near the church.
There is a large, unpaved car park at the southern entrance to the school area.
Free access to the ruins by bike.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. F. S. Dmochowski: Przekleństwo matki. Opowiadanie..., Verbum 2004
2. B. Guerquin: Zamki w Polsce, Arkady 1984
3. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
4. L. Kajzer: Małe czy duże, czyli o tzw. zamkach rycerskich na Niżu Polskim
5. T. Olszacki, A. Różański: Zamek w Gołańczy, Gołaniecki Ośrodek Kultury 2015
AS CAN BE SEEN FROM THE ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH,
THE DIRECT SURROUNDINGS OF THE RUINS ARE NOT AS PICTURESQUE AS THEY MIGHT SEEM
Castles nearby: Brodnica - ruins of the Teutonic castle from the 14th century, 16 km Golub-Dobrzyń - the Teutonic castle from the 14th century, 18 km
Sadłowo - relics of the knights' castle from the 14th century, 22 km Kowalewo Pomorskie - relics of the Teutonic castle from the 13th century, 29 km Wąbrzeźno - relics of the castle of the bishop of Chełmno from the 14th century, 30 km
Kurzętnik - ruins of the Teutonic castle from the 14th century, 39 km
ALSO WORTH SEEING:
Situated about 150 meters north-west of the castle, the Gothic church of St. Catherine, built probably at the same time as the fortified seat of the Ogończyk family. It is made of bricks, erected on a rectangular plan with a sacristy on the north side and a porch on the south side, enriched with neo-Gothic accents added during the nineteenth-century renovation. The most valuable equipment of this small temple is a painting of Our Lady and Child made at the beginning of the 17th century, as well as a baptismal font from 1776 and a 14th century Gothic crucifix. A neo-Gothic bell tower stands next to the church.
