Castle in Przemyśl

he first, Gothic, castle was built in this place on the San River in the fourteenth century, after the incorporation of part of the Duchy of Halych and these lands into Polish during the reign of Casimir the Great. In front of the castle there was a wooden stronghold erected probably in the 10th century. Already in this wooden fortress there were stone buildings - a rotunda with an apse and an adjacent two-storey palas. However, there are no traces of it or the original Gothic castle. The castle was probably erected around 

Casimir Castle in Przemyśl in the photo from 1014-18

the middle of the fourteenth century, because the local lands were within the borders of Poland in 1340, and according to the chronicler Janek of Czarnków, the castle was built soon after. The buildings included a Ruthenian church made of ashlar stone, mentioned in 1220. In 1412, this church was transformed into a Latin cathedral, and in 1470 it was demolished. The castle itself was burned in 1498 by the Wallachians.

In the years 1514-1553, Piotr Kmita undertook the reconstruction by changing it into a Renaissance bastion castle. Its condition after this expansion is known from inventories from 1553 and 1569. At that time, the complex consisted of parts: a homestead and a proper castle. The outhouse was located in the north-western, lower part of the hill and had two wooden towers, and a gate in one of them. The castle proper had a quadrilateral plan with round towers at the corners, and in the southern corner - a four-sided one. The north-west wing housed the gate and is preserved to this day.

At the end of the 16th century, according to sources, a tower was erected, but this should rather be interpreted as a modernization of the tower already existing.

In the years 1616-1633, the starost of in the castle was Marcin Krasicki, who undertook the reconstruction of the castle again. The reconstruction was aimed at transforming the castle into a palace residence, but this was not fully achieved. The towers north and east were raised, the north-eastern wing was transformed into a residential building and the construction of cloisters began next to it. After Krasicki's death in 1633, 

Aerial photo, photo by ZeroJeden, V 2023

the castle gradually declined, and the superficial renovations carried out at that time could not remove all the damage. In 1663, the outer castle together with the south-eastern part of the upper castle was in ruins. Although in 1667 a commission was appointed, which was to find a way to better fortify the castle, and in 1678 Marcin Kącki was to strengthen the castrum, nothing was done in this direction.

It was not until 1759 that the starost of Przemyśl, Stanisław Poniatowski, began another renovation. The south-western curtain was then demolished along with the adjacent towers and a new wall was built, reducing the complex by about 10 meters. The north-eastern wing was renovated, the gatehouse received buttresses. The works were completed in 1762, and the condition of the castle after this renovation is known from the inventory from 1765 and from the design of the Austrian authorities to adapt it into a prison from 1801. In 1842, the last remains of the castle were destroyed during the establishment of the city park. In the years 1865-1867, the north-eastern 

Castle on Napoleon Orda's lithograph, 'Album of Views', Series 6, 1880

wing and the tower north were renovated, and in 1885, in connection with the adaptation for the purposes of the theatre, earthworks were carried out in this wing. The beginning of the twentieth century did not bring any changes in the appearance of the castle, only in recent years it was decided to restore the castle to its former appearance. The original line of the south-western curtain wall was restored and both towers at this curtain were rebuilt, and the outline of the rotunda and palas was uncovered in the courtyard.

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