"The Oil Trail of Carpathian and Galicia"
- preserve the relics of the world's oil industry.

Sub-Carpathia, therein, Land of Gorlice has been the Land of pump jacks cobwebbed by oil rigs. It is where, in the 1850s, first oil wells, distilleries, and oil corporation used to come into being giving rise to the development of oil industry all over the world.
The traces and symbols of hard and effective work of generations grew into the local landscape interlacing with natural values.

The Ethnographic Park, Folk Architecture Museum in Sanok.
Crude-oil Sector
Oil industry exhibition presents an outline of oil mining history In Sub-Carpathian since the mid 19th century up to the present day. It consists of building, machines and tools from the closed mines in the Western Bieszczady Mts., the Carpathian foothills and the Lower Baskid Mts. One can trace there the successive stages of the development of what used to be the most important industry of that area staring from the oldest manual methods of mining oil from dug-wells, trough percussion drilling group pump system (by means of treadmills and oil-well pump) and individual pump (pump cranes) to all-round treatment of the mined Wells, oil transport storage.

Elżbieta Pikor
translated by Justyna Rymarowicz

The biggest number of cases occurred in the post in Rzeszów Jasionka Detachment (15). Comparably, in Podkarpacie Region in 2010 there were 10 cases of the Border Law violation. In the neighboring  detachments of Border Guards border guards detained 39 (Nadburzański) and 7 (Karpacki) foreigners who violated the regulation of a small cross-border movement. In general, there were 890 foreigners stopped at the border due to their overdue stay in Poland. Moreover, 54 of them were stopped as a result of their illegal stay caused by the violation of the regulation described in the agreement about small cross-border movement.

Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

A topic for discussion…

   There is a question that ought to be asked, namely what former Rus, especially Kievan Rus', has in common with present Ukraine. Is this the same nation? Descendants of the same people?.
   The experts claim that Kievan Rus' is related to Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine in the same way as Franks are related to France and Germany.
   The word Ukraine has a very old origin; each duchy of southern Rus had its Ukraine that is a territory situated at the border land.
   The first mention about Ukraine appeared in the years 1111-1200 in “Chronicle of Kiev,” in which the anonymous chronicler describing a death of Wlodzimierz, duke of Pereyaslav and the hero of fights against Polovtsy, noted: “And all Pereyaslavians cried after him, Ukraine mourned him greately”.

„Of chains and disgrace the mere thought abusive
Offends the honesty of free Podolanka,
Therefore, she grabs her child into her arms,
Like Scyths formerly in Tauryka priestesses,
Grabbing two knives stern for enemies,
Grand! (She called) my Fathers’ God,
And you their shadows! You have two victims,
Both innocent – accept both of them,
One will fall at the freedom’s grave;
The other - purer - at the altar of faith!”

King Bolesław the Bold
King Casimir the Great
Prince Konstanty Ostrogski
King Stephen Báthory
Prince Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski
Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski
Khmelnytsky Bohdan Zenobi
King John Casimir
Prince Jeremi Michał Wiśniowiecki
King Jan III Sobieski

Anna Dorota Chrzanowska
According to Chrzanowski’s last will, she was Anna Dorota von Frezen, so  she was German not Pole. For the first time the name Zofia was mentioned in 1828 by Zaborowski in his poem. Others called her Małgorzata.

Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

photo (bo)

Royal castles, lordly palaces full of splendor, Old Polish manor - houses, hidden among aged parks, and majestic ruins of the former seats – all this may be seen while travelling through the picturesque corners of the PODKARPACIE Region.
... come, see, comment...
visit - http://pogranicze.eu/pl/gallery/

Przemyśl Royal Castle - Kazimierzowski

... raised after 1340, during the reign of King Casimir the Great, a brick castle in a Gothic style, of which only an entrance gate preserved…
…in 1616-1631, the castle was being rebuilt by Marcin Krasicki, the starost of Przemyśl…

fot. Kazimierz Błonar

Dzików, currently Tarnobrzeg

... a seat of the Tarnowski family...
... in 1522, Jan Spytek Tarnowski, Leliwa coat of arms from, Wielowieś near Tarnów bought Dzików...
... privilege of founding Tarnobrzeg in1593 given by king Sigismund III Vasa...
... Michał Stanisław Tarnowski starte to enlarge the castle...


Zawada near Dębica

... a seat of the families: Ligęza, Przependowski, Bieliński, Radziwiłł and Raczyński... 
... the castle was built around 1656 by the Ligęza family…
... in 1819, Anna Radziwiłłówna gave a castle in Zawada as a dowry to her husband Atanazy Raczyński...


Sanok Royal Castle

... the castle was raised by starost Mikołaj Wolski in 1523-1548...
... During the times of its splendor, the castle was a sumptuous residence belonging to the King...
- as a property of Queen Bona, whose family armorial cartouche Sforzów exists till today...


Rzeszów

... seat of the Ligęza and Lubomirski families...
... during the Swedish Deluge, after lawful King John Casmir had abandoned the country, an army, and faithful to the King, had in their hands four powerful fortresses: Jasna Góra, Lvov, Łańcut and Rzeszów...
... Grand Marshal of the Crown, Hieronim Sebastian Lubomirski, commanded from the Rzeszów castle...

worked out by Zakapior
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos (bo, ordynat, mk, zakapior)

Zhovkva (Żółkiew)

   Zhovkva is a town full of monuments, Situated in the Roztochia - 34 km from Lvov. Founded in 1597 by Stanisław Żółkiewski, the Field Crown Hetman. It was the private town. It was granted city rights in 1603. Next, by heirdom, it became the property of his grandson, King John III Sobieski, it also belonged respectively to the Daniłowicz family and to the Radziwiłł family....
Zhovkva was a favorite residence of John III Sobieski. The king strengthened the town with modern fortifications, he was also decorating it in a Baroque style, he brought there his numerous war trophies...
Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Olesko 

   Olesko is a town situated around 70 km from Lvov (not far from Pidhirsti and Zolochiv), famous mainly for a castle, a church and a monastery of the Capuchins and a former Holy Trinity Catholic church. For the first time, Olesko appeared in the written sources from 1372. The castle, situated on a hill overlooking the neighboring plain, was built in the 14th century by Galician Volhynian dukes and was many times destroyed by the Tatars. In 1432, the castle was conquered by Jagiełło, who gave it to Jan of Sienno. After the Sienieński family, the Herbut family, later the Kamieniecki family, and at last the Daniłowicz families were the next owners of the castle...
Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Pidhirtsi (Podhorce)

   One of the most precious palaces and garden complexes in the Kresy, in the type of villa castello. The composition is based on numerous connections between the view and the surroundings. The palace is situated in a way which enables one to see from the representative rooms and from the garden terraces the boundless plains of the Volhynia Region, and the palace itself is visible from the Volhynia Region for many kilometers...
Władysław of Varna bestowed the goods of Pidhirtsi and Zahirtsi to Janusz Podhorecki...
Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Zolochiv (Złoczów)

   - situated to the East from Lvov on a Road to Ternopil, relatively not far from Pidhirtsi and Olesko.
During the times of Sigismund the Old, Wladysław Sieniński, whose town was granted the Magdeburg Rights in 1523, was the owner of the castle. The Górka family of Greater Poland was the next owners of the castle, and since 1592, Marek Sobieski - the grandfather of King John III Sobieski - owned the castle...
Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Brody 

     The castle was built in 1630-1635 by Grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. A two-storey residential building in the form of a palace with a big courtyard decorated with arcades, casemates and a tower was built on a pentagon. The whole was surrounded by walls and defensive shafts with ramparts and a moat. An entrance led through a bridge above the moat and through a gate.

Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
Photos Aleksander Mishuk, Mieczysław Kowal, Janusz Kurasz, Jurek Jaremczuk, (zakapior)

visit with us...
see - http://pogranicze.eu/pl/gallery/

Ruins of the castle of the Fredropol

... history of the Fredro family...


Ruins of the Kamieniec castle in Odrzykoń

... history of the families: Kamieniecki, Boner, Firlej, Skotnicki...
... belongs to the oldest fortresses in the Podkarpacie Region...
… traces of the settlement from the period of the Lusatian culture discovered on the castle hill show it…
… the castle was inherited by the Firlej family (the lower castle) and by the Skotnicki family (the upper castle), history of this quarrel served Aleksander Fredro as a plot for The Revenge…


Ruins of the castle of the Kmita family on the Sobień mountain

... history of honorable Peter Kmita called Lunak...
... between Załuż and Monasterzec, on the hill densely covered with plants, there are the ruins of the Mediaeval Sobień castle …
… the castle was built in the 14th century during the reign of king Casimir the Great, the one who “left Poland in brick…”…


Ruins of the castle of the Węgierka

... history of the Pruchnicki and Pieniążek families...
... next to Pruchnik there is a grand, cylindrical defensive bastion. It is a remnant of the bastile castle (the 16th-17th century)…
…the Pieniążek family gave the castle its defensive character, and the residence remained in their hands until the beginning of the 18th century…
… the castle burnt and was not rebuilt any more …

Worked out był Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos (bo, ordynat, kryzk, mk, zakapior)
comment - http://pogranicze.eu/pl/gallery/

Zbarazh (Zbaraż)

- In the 13th century, at the top of the Old Zbarazh Mountain, a wooden fortified castle, which was destroyed during the Tatars invasion in 1589, was built…
The second castle was raised by Zbarazh dukes – brothers Jerzy and Krzysztof. A design of the castle was prepared by the Italian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1612, and construction works began in 1620. In 1627, after the death of Krzysztof and later, after the death of his brother Jerzy, the castle went into the hands of the Wiśniowiecki family (they came from the same Korybutowicz lineage as the Zbaraski family). New owners strengthened the castle’s defensive system, and enlarged a residential part – the palace…
For Poles, a visit in the town is always an opportunity for emotion or, at least, it is an adventure with a thrill…
… We are recalling With Fire and Sword…
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Buchach (Buczacz)

The castle was built in the 14th century by the Buczacki family. Formerly, it was a wooden building, later – a brick one. Built on a triangle base it had an entrance through a gate tower and leading through a courtyard to a residential building...
The Buczacki family settled in Yazlovetz, they adopted the name Jazłowiecki. Due to their efforts, the town and the castle enlarged...
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Yazlovetz (Jazłowiec)

A castle, and later unfortunately ruins of the castle, which survived till the outbreak of World War II, was built in the first half of the 16th century by Jerzy Jazłowiecki (1575), the Grand Crown Hetman, and beautified and strengthened by his son Mikołaj, the starost of Sniatyn...
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Terebovl  (Trembowla)

Thanks to Henryk Sienkiewicz every Pole knows what the fortress in Kamianets Podilskyi was in the old Poland and what the history of the fortress is. It is a completely different story with respect to the castle in Terebovl, which was considered to be the next after Kamianets and served an important function in a defensive system of the Galicia land...
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Vyshnivets (Wiśniowiec)

Formerly a town, it is situated on the border of the Volhynia Region and the Podolia Region, by the Horyn River, about 25 km to the East from Załoźce...
The first mentions about the settlement come from 1395, but under the name Vyshnivets the place was mentioned for the first time in the half of the 15th century. The town is known mainly from the battle which took place there on 28 April 1512, when under Vyshnivets the army of Rzeczpospolita conquered the Tatars’ army...
The grandson of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gediminas, Dymitr Korybut founded castles in Vyshnivets and in Zbarazh. When the first castle was built, he started to use the name Wiśniowiecki...
The famous duke Jerema Michał (1612-1651), the voivode of Ruthenia, founded a church and a monastery of Carmelites (1645) in the town and fortified the castle which has already existed there…
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
Photos Aleksander Mishuk, Mieczysław Kowal, Janusz Kurasz, Jurek Jaremczuk, (zakapior)

Royal castles, lordly palaces full of splendor, Old Polish manor - houses, hidden among aged parks, and majestic ruins of the former seats - all this may be seen while travelling through the picturesque corners of the PODKARPACIE Region.
... come, see, comment...
visit: http://pogranicze.eu/pl/gallery/
http://eu.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=17

Baranów Sandomierski
The history of the generations – Leszczyński, Wiśniowiecki, Sanguszko, Lubomirski,  Małachowski, Potocki, Krasicki and Dolański…
... the castle in Baranów, the old seat of the Leszczyński family, is an impressive example of the Renaissance architecture, one of the best preserved ones in Europe…
… a beautiful park...
visit:
http://eu.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=17&p2_articleid=147

fot. Paweł Rut

Przecław
... Ligęza, Koniecpolski, Tarnowski, Rey...
... localization of Przecław probably falls on the times of Bolesław the Chaste…
... the manor was in the hands of the Ligęza family till 1548...
... in the  17th century Przecław was bought by the Tarnowski family, who after 20 years sold it to Władysław Rey...

fot. Paweł Rut

Łańcut
... Pilecki, Stadnicki, Lubomirski, Potocki...
... the castle in Łańcut is one of the most beautiful, the best preserved and the most frequently visited castles…
... it was classified to the group of international monuments...
... Stanisław Lubomirski, whose wife was Izabela Czartoryska...
visit:
http://eu.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=17&p2_articleid=182
http://eu.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=17&p2_articleid=64


Lesko
... the history of the family - ... Kmita "fief of Sobieńsk"... and Stadnicki...
… at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, Lesko with the broad goods was bestowed to the Kmita family from Wiśnicz, Szreniawa coat of arms, by king Vladislaus Jagiełło…
... Lesko was one of many villages belonging to the Kmita family...


Krasiczyn
... Krasicki, Modrzewski, Wojakowski, Tarło, Potocki, Piniński, Sapiecha...
... the castle in Krasiczyn,  one of the most beautiful treasures of Renaissance - Mannerist architecture, it belongs to the most beautiful castles in Europe...
... the fact that Sigismund III Vasa, Władysław IV, John Casimir and Augustus II visited the castle speaks about the castle’s past…
visit:
http://eu.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=17&p2_articleid=148

worked out by Zakapior
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos (bo, ordynat, mk, zakapior)

Kamienets Podilskyi (Kamieniec Podolski)

   "On rocky slopes, as if growing from them, there are powerful walls and towers of an old town, in which nature and architects’ talent created a unique view, where a church and a Turkish minaret, a town hall and an Orthodox church stand next to each other, where each stone preserves in itself the voices of history”…
…A chronicle attributes the creation of the stone fortress to the Lithuanian dukes Koriatowicz, who reigned in the duchy in 60s-90s of the 14th century…
A high, rocky bank of the Smotrych River, a picturesque landscape, powerful towers with mysterious Latin inscriptions...
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Khotyn (Chocim)

   Situated on a crossing of trade routes, Khotyn has always attracted the invaders’ attention.
…in order to protect Khotyn from the invaders, a fortress which survived centuries and which saw under its walls the army of the Ottoman Empire, insurgents of Mucha, national avengers of Detyna, warriors of Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, and Petro Doroshenko was built…
…Khotyn attracts tourists from all over the world; it is one of the oldest towns in Kresy, which not long ago celebrated its 1000th anniversary. At the beginning of the 11th century, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev created a system of border fortifications on the West and South of the new state, including Khotyn…
Aleksander Mishuk
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Holy Trinity Trenches (Okopy Trójcy Świętej)

   On a long, rocky promontory near the mouth of the Zbruch River to the Dniester River, on a South-East edge of Galicia, and on the westernmost extent point of Tarnopol Voivodeship in the period of the Second Rzeczpospolita, there are ruins of the fortress from the 17th century, which became famous due to the colorful descriptions in The Un-Divine Comedy by Zygmunt Krasiński. It was there, in a literary vision of Krasiński, on the Holy Trinity Trenches, that aristocrats defended themselves from revolutionists, and the place became a symbol of the Polish conservatism and traditionalism.
Since 1672, Kamianets Podilskyi, the impregnable fortress, was in the Turkish hands. In the same year, King Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki signed a disgraceful treaty in Buchach, giving the region of Podolia to the Turks.
Worked out by Bohdan Zhukiewicz
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
Photos Aleksander Mishuk, Mieczysław Kowal, Janusz Kurasz, Jurek Jaremczuk, (zakapior)

Kurozwęki castle 

   In the sources from 1246, Kurozwęki...
However, more prominent works are surely connected with other owners of the goods and the castle, the Lanckoroński family. It is because one of the two daughters of Hieronim Kurozwęcki, Anna, after 1521 married a huntsman of Sandomierz, Jan Lanckoroński, with Kurozwęki as her dowry… 
   Sołtyk’s daughter, Emilia, in 1833 married Paweł Popiel, Sulima coat of arms, and had Kurozwęki as her dowry. The couple settled there after the fire of Popiel’s property in the Cracow region Ruszcza in 1840. Paweł Popiel, a prominent representative of Galician conservatisms, a publicist – a cofounder of “Czas”, already in 1873 gave Kurozwęcki goods to his son, Martin…
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Ujazd, the ruins of Krzyżtopór castle 

   Krzyżtopór Castle was raised in 1626-1644 at Krzysztof Ossoliński’s command. It is an example of an Early Baroque fortress, rather representative than defensive one. The name “Krzyżtopór” is derived from a cross (the sign of the counter-reformation) and an axe (Polish: topór, the emblem of the castle’s founder) forged above the main entrance to the castle. The building itself is huge. It was divided into: four bastions, which represent the four seasons; inside there are 12 halls symbolizing 12 months; 52 rooms, i.e. 52 weeks of the year; and, according to the records, formerly there were also 356 windows representing the number of days in the year. Supposedly, one of the rooms had a glass ceiling above which there was an enormous aquarium with goldfishes, and the castle was surrounded by broad gardens...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

The ruins of Janowiec castle

   At the beginning of the 16th century Mikołaj Firlej, Lewart coat of arms, the starost of Kazimierz, and later the castellan of Cracow and the grand crown hetman in the land of the former village Syrokomla started to build a marvelous bastile building in a Late Renaissance style. The residence’s grandeur was to surpass the castle in Kazimierz situated on the other side of the Vistula. The works started in 1507 and lasted around 20 years. In 1537, Sigismund the Old granted city rights to the previously mentioned settlement. In an appropriate document there was a mention that the king allows Piotr Firlej to locate Janowiec near the fortress […] (built at a great expense). This leads us to a rational conclusion that Mikołaj Firlej initiated the building activities, but it was his son – the Ruthenian voivode Piotr - who was the main founder.  Sigismund the Old and Queen Bona stayed in the castle during the ceremony of the town’s location...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Ostroh (Ostróg)

- From the beginning of the 15th century a town and a castle by the Wilia River were the capital of the sovereign dukes of Russ – the Ostrogski family, in the 16th century they were the centre of the powerful latifundium – one of the biggest in Rzeczpospolita. At the turn of the 16th and 17th century, Ostroh was the centre of the cultural life in Volyn...
Not much remained of the former “magnitude.”...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Lutsk (Łuck)

- Already in the early Middle Ages in the place of the present Lutsk there was a Slavic town of the Dulebs’ tribe also called the Luczans. The name of the town was supposed to be derived from them but, according to other hypothesis, it comes from a word bow (Polish łuk) or Iuka (Polish) referring to a meander of a river and riverside meadows surrounding the town...
In 1073 Lutsk started to belong to the Vladimir Kingdom. In 1083 Lithuanians and Yotvingians attacked the town...
In 1321 Gediminas attacked Lutsk and placed there his starost...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Dubno

- located on a low headland, surrounded by rivers’ backwaters on the Ikwa River (basin of the Pripyat River) made famous by Słowacki. Together with Ostroh, Kremenets and Pochaiv it constitutes the most attractive region of Volyn...
In the 11th century, Dubno belonged to the Rurikovich family...
It is one of the oldest and the most interesting towns of Volyn. The first mention comes from The Ipatov Chronicle. It informs that in 1099, by a decision of the dukes of Rus, the town on the Ikwa River was given to the duke David Igorovitch. During the great invasion of Mongols in 1240-41 it was probably destroyed...
In the 13th century the town belonged to the Kingdom of Galicia-Vladimir, and since 1340 – to Latvia. From the half of the 14th century a strong Polish garrison was stationing there...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Kremenets (Krzemieniec)

A royal castle and town.
- Kremenets is located in the valley among the hills called the Kremenets Mountains. Due to these hills, the region seems to be typical rather for the neighboring Podolia. This picturesque region was formerly called the Volhynian Switzerland...
The place administratively belongs to the Ternopil Oblast. Certainly, it is the only Volhynian town present in the awareness of each generation of Poles due to Juliusz Słowacki. It is one of the most frequently visited tourist spots in Volyn...
Unfortunately, it also attracts thieves. That is why one should avoid picking up casual guides to the car, especially when driving up the Bona Mountain...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos Janusz Kurasz, Mieczysław Kowal, Antoni Hadała, Jurek Jaremczuk, Jurek Owczaruk, (zakapior)

“Dunajec” castle in Niedzica

In 1412 in the castle in Niedzica situated within the Hungarian border, Ladislaus Jagiello’s delegation paid the Hungary 37 threescore of Prague pennies, in deposit 13 Spiš towns including Niedzica itself...
In 1425 the castle belonged to a descendant of John Berzeviczy, Peter Schwarz from Łomnica, and after that time, it went into the hands of his son, John Schwarz. Berzeviczy’s castle must have been a strong fortress because in the 30’s of the 15th century the Hussites destroyed the neighboring area, but they even did not try to attack the fortress in Niedzica. In 1463 John pledged the castle to Emeryk Zápolya, who took it over permanently after a childless death of Berzeviczy...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Ruins of “Wronin” castle in Czorsztyn

In the 14th century on a high rocky hill by the Dunajec River there was a watch tower in which Bolesław the Chaste with his wife Kinga found a shelter while escaping the Tatars’ invasion. At the turn of the 13th century in the Northern part of the foundation, a detached round tower was erected on the rock. Not long after that, probably around 1350, Casimir the Great, striving for safety of the border with Hungary, erected a brick castle. In the following centuries the castle was a centre of the king’s authority and a seat of starosts appointed for life…
Zawisza the Black had his seat there when he took up the Spiš County…
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

The castle in Wiśnicz

Nowy Wiśnicz, situated on an afforested hill, is another place in Lesser Poland which necessarily ought to be visited.
The castle belonging to the families: Kmitowie and Lubomirscy undoubtedly attract tourists’ attention. It is one of the most precious works of the Early Baroque residentiary and defensive architecture in Poland. The history of the castle begins in the second half of the 14th century, when Jan Kmita of the Szreniawa coat of arms built a small castle with one tower surrounded by a palisade and a dirt wall. Next owners enlarged the building adding other towers and fortifications...
Peter III Kmita and Peter V played an important role in a transformation of the castle into a powerful fortress. It was during the times of Peter V, the voivode of Cracow and the Grand Marshall of the Crown, when the biggest development of the castle took place...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

The castle in Dębno

The castle situated on a small artificial hill was built in 1470-1480 by the Castellan of Krakow, Jakub Dębiński, and the Odrowąż coat of arms.  
The castle was owned by many owners, among them: Rupniewski, Wesselini, the Fraksztyn family, the Ostrogski family, Platenberg, the Tarło family, the Lubomirski family, and it was rebuilt and modernized almost as many times...
Currently, it is a complex of four storied residential buildings covered with a high hipped roof. In the middle of the buildings there is a quadrilateral courtyard with wooden porches...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos granted by Antoni Hadała (vico, bo, zakapior)

Wytrzyszczka Tropsztyn castle

   On the left western bank of the Dunajec River, on a steep hill being a promontory of the Czchow Lake, 429 meters above the sea level, there is the Tropsztyn Castle. It guarded a so called Sądecka Gate through which two important trade routes from Poland to Upper Hungary, i.e. Slovakia, lead: the water route and the inland route. From the beginning, Tropsztyn functioned as a private fortress, whose owners often lawlessly tried to take the control over these routes. 
- the Ośmioróg family, also called the Gierałt family, was the first owners and the builders of the castle. The oldest preserved mention about the already bricked castle comes from 1382. However, there are presumptions that its beginnings reach the end of the 13th century.
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Ruins, a castle and a tower in Czchów

- it is one of the oldest royal castles guarding a trade route leading to Hungary with a customs house recorded for the first time in 1327. From the 14th century till the 17th century the castle was an administrative base of the royal goods – Czchów district existing since the first partition of Poland in 1772. The district embraced Czchów – the town reigned by the German law and villages: Stróża, Wola Stróska, Siemiechów.
   The beginnings of the castle situated by the Dunajec River on a hill on the right side of the town reach the times of reign of Wenceslaus II Premyslid (1292-1305). The oldest bricked element – a tall tower preserved almost in its full height (28 m) - was erected on the eastern, lower promontory of the wide hill separated by a moat from its remaining part.
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photo (bo)

Bar Castle

The castle was built around 1380 by the Koriatowicz family. It was the Lithuanian ducal family, which received this land from the Grand Duke of Lithuania – Algirdas. The conferment was approved anew by the Polish king Ladislaus Jagiello in 1386. At that time the locality was called Rov. The first castle was a wooden fortified building with two towers and a double brick-wall...
After a death of the last person from the family (1430) the land was incorporated to the Crown and the castle was inhabited by a royal starost...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

Międzybóż Castle

A brick castle was built by the Koriatowicz family, who received the land from the Polish king Casimir the Great in 1366...

The castle was built in the place of the former wooden borough burned by the Tatars in the 12th century. At that time, the castle was frequently attacked by the Tatars because it was situated between the routes of their assaults called Black Trail and Kuczman Trail. (There were also Muravsky Trail and Wolosky Trail...)...
Zhukiewicz Bohdan
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
photos Janusz Kurasz, Mieczysław Kowal, Antoni Hadała, Jurek Jaremczuk, Jurek Owczaruk, (zakapior)