he stronghold or castle in Szydłów probably existed already in 1255, when Bolesław the Chaste stayed here with his court. Probably this first princely residence was located in the place of the current Church of All Saints. In the fourteenth century, Casimir the Great surrounded Szydłów with walls, which probably already had city rights from the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The castle, erected at the same time as the town walls, formed one whole with them, occupying the western corner of the town;
View from the south-west, photo by ZeroJeden, X 2005
the urban area ended here with a slope descending to the valley of the Ciekąca River. The castle walls covered an area of over 7000 m2 with an irregular polygon. Along the southern section of the walls there was the main residential building of the castle, which was the royal residence. This building, whose walls have been preserved to this day in their full height, has a rectangular plan with sides of 13 and 35 meters, and was originally divided on both floors into two rooms. From the outside, the building had an avant-corps, probably housing the castle chapel. In the west corner there were two cylindrical towers, of which the one located in the line of the walls probably had a protruding beak, which is shown in the plan of Bohdan Guerquin. The administrative building of the castle, slightly larger in plan than the residence, was located in the northern corner of the courtyard, it also had two floors and the ground floor was divided into three chambers. The entrance to the castle was in the eastern section of the walls from the town side.
The castle
Plan of the city, taken from: 'Monuments of architecture and urban planning in Poland' Warsaw 1986
was probably damaged several times as a result of fires that plagued the city. In the fifteenth century, both round towers were demolished and in the place of the wall included in the series of walls, a square tower called the Treasury was erected, to which a rectangular building with buttresses was later added. In 1528, the Treasury was raised by one storey.
In 1541, Szydłów again suffered from a fire, which completely destroyed, among others, the castle buildings. Soon after, the reconstruction of the former royal residence was undertaken and the inspection from 1564 already mentions the rebuilt castle. During this period, however, the castle no longer fulfilled its former functions of the rulers' residence, despite the fact that the reconstruction was carried out in the Renaissance style on a grand scale.
After the fire of 1630 and the destruction caused by the Swedish army during the Deluge in 1656, the castle was renovated, and the existing entrance was replaced with a gatehouse. In 1723, on the initiative of the starost Józef Załuski, the castle was rebuilt and modernized, but soon after it was abandoned. In 1789, it was already in a state of deepening ruin, and in 1822 the remains were put up for auction for demolition. The plans were not implemented, but the buildings continued to deteriorate.
From the beginning of the twentieth century, security
photo by ZeroJeden, VI 2000
works began. In the interwar period, the city walls were also conserved, and in the years 1945-1947 J. Żukowski carried out works that significantly restored the former appearance of the castle walls. The main building was then slightly raised and crowned with battlement. Later, the Treasury was rebuilt and turned into a small museum. The last works began in 1999 under the supervision of Leszek Kajzer.
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e stronghold or castle in Szydłów probably existed already in 1255, when Bolesław the Chaste stayed here with his court. Probably this first princely residence was located in the place of the current Church of All Saints. In the fourteenth century, Casimir the Great surrounded Szydłów with walls, which probably already had city rights from the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The castle, erected at the same time as the town walls, formed one whole with them, occupying the western corner of the town; 
