Ogrodzieniec Castle (Poland)

In 1470 the castle and the rich Krakow burghers bought the castle and Imbram and Petr Salomon, followed by several other owners. Since 1523, the castle has been owned by the Krakow bourgeoisie and bathrobe Jan Boner. After his son Seweryn rebuilt King Krakow's Wawel, he decided to build a decent residence for himself. Ogrodziniec has chosen Ogrodziniec from his numerous estates and rebuilt it to a spectacular Renaissance residence. The building was continued by his son Stanislav, the last Boner in the castle, and other owners.

In 1587 the castle was occupied by the Austrian army of the Archduke Maximilian, who retreated after the unsuccessful siege of Krakow. The Thirty Years' War had survived the castle, but it was again occupied during the Swedish invasion of 1655, but the damage was not too great. The dot for the active life of the castle was a fire built in 1702 by Swedish troops. The castle was no longer restored and slowly changed into a ruin. Even in 1784 several rooms were inhabited, the castle was abandoned in 1810.

Between the world wars, land with the remains of the castle was redeemed and in 1947-73 the ruins were secured and made available to tourists.

Appreciation of the oldest castle is not much known, for the most part fell victim to a Renaissance rebuild. The core occupied the top of a hill surrounded by steep rocks. The only exception was the northwest side, which could be secured by a valley or a wall. In the 15th century, the wooden building replaced at least a three-story brick residential tower on the eastern rock and a wing on the southern side of the courtyard. In the crest between the two rocks in the southeast was the entrance gate with the drawbridge. At this stage the water was supplied only by a brick tank.

During the rebuilding of Seweryn Boner, a northern wing was built where a well was excavated in the rock. The South wing was enlarged and reinforced by two towers - in the southwest corner, rounded, in the southeast trapezoid with rounded corners. His son, Stanislav, had built the western wing and continued to strengthen the defense of the southern facade. On the rock in front of the trapezoidal tower he built a trapezoidal structure called the "bastion", which primarily provided the entrance side. Under the southwest circular tower, he built a large pavilion, similar to the Wawel in Krakow, on a rectangular ground plan called the "corn-leg". The wall between these two structures closed the so-called "small" courtyard. To the south and east of the upper castle, a tower connecting the lonely limestone rock blocks of almost 3 hectares of large prehistoric gardens with numerous economic buildings. The forecourt was entered in the north-west at the site of today's box office with a bridge with a drawbridge.

In the mid-17th century the damage caused by the Swedes was corrected by the Baroque modifications, but they did not have much influence on the appearance of the castle. For the time being, the last few small interventions in the form of the castle were made by the filmmakers in the year 2001-2 when shooting Andrzej Wajda's film "Zemsta".