In Poland there are many abandoned and ruined castles. Mainly it's becouse of wars of the ages and lack of money to restoration. It's a great pity, becouse they are continously disappearing. Today presentation of one of such castle - Tenczyn.

Author: Jerzy Strzelecki under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Author: Artur Szeja under Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa – Na tych samych warunkach 2.5

Author: Jakub Hałun under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Tenczyn Castle is in Rudniki village near Krakov, so if You were in this city, we recommend to do small trip outside town.

First informations about castle are dated at 1308. History of castle was very tumultous: First he was built from wood by Nawoj from Morawica, than rebuilt with stone by his son, and than rebuilt once again by his grandson. Władysław Jagiełło, Polish king, prisoned here Teutonics Knights taken as prisoners during Battle of Tannenberg (Bitwa pod Grunwaldem).

In the XVI century Tęczyn Castle was often visited by Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski - well known and important Polish writers. In 1570 castle was once again rebuilt. In the walls were than church, brewery, washing house, folwark (polish word for the giant farm) and a hudge settlement (in polish called "podgrodzie"), wineries and gardens outside the castle which were surounded by curtain wall.

In 1655 Teczynski castle was plundered by Swedish soldiers and burnt, but the buildings were rebuilt to burn once again in 1798 after struct of lightening.

Nowdays Tenczyscy family tries to recover the castle.