Castle in Lublin

robably already in the times of Bolesław Chrobry there was a wooden watchtower on the site of the present castle, and certainly in the twelfth century there was a stronghold of the prince's governor, and later the castellan. In the second half of the twelfth century, the hillfort was the largest center east of the Vistula. The first brick building within the hillfort could have been a church, probably from the twelfth century. There were frequent fights for the stronghold, because the princes of Ruthenia wanted to incorporate these areas into their lands.

After damage in 1205, and then in 1244, the hillfort required strengthening. Within the ramparts, in the mid-thirteenth century, a huge stolp was erected, with a height of 25 meters, a diameter of 15 meters and a wall thickness of up to 4 meters. The tower had three floors connected by a staircase running in the thickness of the walls, the entrance to it was about 5 meters above ground level. In addition to the function of a place of final defense, the tower also served residential functions. The two upper floors were equipped with decorative windows that gave a lot of light. At the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, another square tower was erected in the south-eastern corner of the hillfort.

Already at the beginning of the fourteenth century, 

Aerial photo, photo by ZeroJeden, X 2018

the ramparts began to be replaced with a defensive wall, which first connected the two towers. It was probably also then that the square tower was rebuilt into a chapel dedicated to St. Trinity. In the times of Casimir the Great, Poland fought in the east and occupied Red Ruthenia. In retaliation, in 1341, the Tatars allied with Ruthenia attacked Lublin, ravaged the city, but the castle managed to defend itself after an 8-day siege. The king immediately rebuilt and expanded the stronghold. The remaining ramparts were replaced with a high perimeter wall, along which the chapel was included. A tower called the Jewish Tower, protruding beyond their boundaries, was added to the northern part of the walls, the entrance gate was located in the western section of the wall. At the gate, on its southern side, there was a two-storey residential building. There were several rooms on the ground floor, and one large chamber occupied the first floor.

During the Polish-Lithuanian union, Lublin from a border fortress became a peaceful, untouched by riots, city in the center of a large country. Kings on their way to allied Lithuania often 

Lublin Castle in a drawing from the nineteenth century

stayed here. In the times of Władysław Jagiełło small construction works were undertaken, in 1407 the chapel was raised, and soon after, in 1418, under the supervision of master Andrzej, it was decorated with rich polychrome. Kazimierz Jagiellończyk also often visited the Lublin castle, he convened a congress of the Crown and Lithuania in Lublin, and it was also here that his sons were educated for several years under the direction of Jan Długosz.

In the 16th century, the constantly raised rank of Lublin meant that the castle was no longer sufficient for royal needs. Before 1520, during the reign of Sigismund the Old, the castle was expanded. At that time, a gatehouse complex with a tower was erected, and the adjacent prince's palace was raised by one storey. In the southern section of the wall, between the tower and the palace, a four-sided tower was erected. In the palace there was a prison in the ground floor, on the first floor there was the office of the starost, a treasury and chambers, and the upper floor was intended for royal rooms, including a bedroom, dining room and column hall. In the mid-sixteenth century, another building was erected in the northern part of the courtyard - adjacent to the northern wall in the vicinity of the tower the Jewish Tower, intended for town offices. All residential buildings of the new castle were crowned with a Renaissance 

Aerial photo, photo by ZeroJeden, X 2018

attic, and a clock was placed on the cylindrical tower.

Starting from the second half of the sixteenth century, the castle began to be neglected. After the death of Sigismund Augustus, he was no longer visited so often by the royal court, the walls that were not repaired began to fall apart. The magnificent but destroyed residence required necessary repair in 1631, when deputies from the Lublin region demanded it at the Warsaw Sejm. However, Władysław IV was not in a hurry to help, and the inspectors sent to check the condition of the castle did not provide the results of the inspection until 1635. At that time, some of the buildings were no longer repairable. Despite such an opinion, the king ordered the then starost of Lublin, Mikołaj Firlej, to rebuild the residence. In the years 1635-1642, under the direction of Jan Cangerle, the castle was probably completely renovated. From 1648, Jan Kazimierz led military operations from the Lublin castle. In the years 1655-1657, Lublin passed through the hands of the Cossacks, Muscovites, Swedes and Hungarians, troops 

The castle on a postcard from the interwar period

were stationed in the castle, which plundered and destroyed most of the buildings, only the chapel remained undamaged. Kings John Casimir, Augustus II and Augustus III stayed in the ruined palace rooms several times, but renovation works were not undertaken.

In 1743, in the castle area, the starost Jakub Zamojski erected the buildings of the chancellery and the archive, and in 1773 the building of the former entrance gate was adapted for residential purposes by the starosta Wincenty Potocki. The lack of care for the remaining buildings led to their complete ruin. After the third partition, Polish Lublin found itself within the Austrian borders, but the new authorities also did not care about the castle. At that time, only one office building erected by Jakub Zamojski was used here. In the early nineteenth century, the area of the Castle Hill was used as a source of building material, and limestone from the Middle Ages was used for road works. In 1817, it was decided that the remains of the castle should be demolished and the hill planted with trees, but this 

View from the north-west, photo by ZeroJeden, VIII 2005

was not implemented.

In the years 1823-1826, a prison was erected here, only the castle chapel and the tower were preserved, which was incorporated into the southern wing of the prison. However, the medieval buildings were adapted to the new appearance of the complex of buildings - in the chapel the fifteenth-century paintings were covered with plaster, and the tower was plastered and the conical helmet was replaced with a flat roof with neo-Gothic battlement. During the nineteenth century, the buildings underwent minor modernization works.

In 1897, the painter Józef Smoliński discovered fragments of medieval polychrome, which was later discovered entirely from under the plaster, and in the years 1917-1918 the chapel was restored. During World War II, the Nazis imprisoned many prominent Polish activists in the castle, after the liberation of Lublin, the prison existed until 1954, then the castle was intended for cultural purposes and a museum was created here.

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