Warszawa - Królewski - Castle in Warszawa - Królewski - About the castle...

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e first defensive complex in the place of the present castle was built during the times of the Duke of Masovia, Bolesław II. After the division of districts, at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, he united the whole of Mazovia, and chose the village located at the mouth of the Kamionka stream into the Vistula as the seat of the castellany. At that time, the village was called Warszowa. The place was chosen very well, from

Panorama of Warsaw from 1708-30, Gabriel Bodenehr

the side of the Vistula there was a steep slope, from the southern side, where the W-Z route now runs, there was a gorge of the aforementioned stream, it was enough to dig a section of the moat separating the castle from the village. Of course, that stronghold did not occupy such a vast area as the castle today - it was located in the vicinity of the Castle Tower, and the moat ran to the vicinity of the Władysławowska Tower.

At the same time as the stronghold, a centre of crafts was being established on the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Bolesław's successor, Trojden, erected brick fortifications around the town and the hillfort. In his time, Warsaw was already such a representative place that in 1339 it could receive papal judges resolving the Polish-Teutonic dispute.

The next Duke of Masovia, Casimir, erected a huge tower at the

Postcard from 1917

castle, then called the Great Tower, now - the Town Tower. From this first tower, however, only the cellars and the ground floor have survived, the rest comes from later times. It is located in the south-eastern corner of the castle, visible from the viaduct over the W-Z route.

The next expansion was made at the beginning of the fifteenth century by Janusz I the Elder, who ruled in the Duchy of Masovia from 1374. He erected an impressive brick princely court adjacent to the Great Tower, called the House or the Great Court, successive sections of wooden and earth fortifications were transformed into a defensive wall. Also from this building there are parts below the level of the current courtyard, although it was almost intact until the Second World War. Originally, these rooms were the ground floor of the building, and were intended for court deliberations and then for the Mazovian Sejm. On the first floor there were princely chambers and a representative spacious room for receptions and festivals.

The castle was enlarged throughout

photo by ZeroJeden, V 2005

the fifteenth century. The Crane Gate was connected to the city walls, a shed of the Land Courts was created, the cellars of which are now located next to the Sigismund Tower. Within the castle there were several more farm buildings and a one-storey Small House (Manor), to which some of the prince's rooms were moved.

The next six Piast princes of Mazovia had their seat in the castle, up to Stanisław I and Janusz III, on which the line of the Masovian Piasts ended. Mazovia also lost its independence at that time. They died in 1524 and 1526, and the issue of their deaths aroused much controversy. Prince Janusz was suspected of giving poison to his mistress Katarzyna Radziejowska. Sigismund the Old, who annexed the Duchy of Masovia to Polish after their death, was forced to appoint a special commission to explain Janusz's death as a result of publicizing the case. However, the commission ruled that the prince did not depart from this world by art or human cause, but by the will of the Lord Almighty. However, the explanation cannot be accepted so uncritically,

photo by ZeroJeden, VIII 2002

because the king quickly removed Princess Anna from power, appointed by the Masovian Sejm. However, this appointment did not save the independence of the duchy.

Over the next years, further construction works were carried out, which can be divided into two stages. The first one was carried out in the years 1526-1531, the next - in 1549. The works consisted in the renovation of the Great and Small Houses, the addition of a small turret to the Great Tower from the south and the addition of several farm buildings. After the death of King Sigismund the Old, the castle was given to his widow - Bona. She resided in Warsaw permanently until her departure to Italy in 1556. Her son, King Sigismund Augustus, also often stayed at the Warsaw Castle.

When during the reign of Sigismund Augustus the Polish-Lithuanian union was planned, it was decided that Warsaw would be the place of the Sejms of the Republic of Poland. In 1569, the expansion of the residence began by holding the first Sejm in Lublin. The construction was supervised by the canon of the Warsaw collegiate church, Kasper Sadłoch, while the supervision of the entire project was entrusted to Jacopo Pari from Biscone, but soon after he was replaced by Giovanni Battista Quadro from Lugano. The castle received a new wing called the New House of the King of His Love, erected along the course of the Vistula. On the first floor of the new wing there were royal apartments, while on the ground floor there were rooms for courtiers and royal guards.

Plan of the first floor of the castle from the Vasa times after the reconstruction of Sigismund III [Source]

The rooms of the Great House were designated for the Sejm sessions

In one of the rooms of the new wing, master Twardowski showed the king the ghost of the deceased Barbara Radziwiłłówna. As a ghost - according to the testimonies of the time - Master Twardowski's magic was aided by a Warsaw townswoman Barbara Giżanka, with whom Sigismund Augustus, to the indignation of the nobility and magnates, began an affair, and even intended to marry her. The only obstacle was the premature death of the monarch.

Warsaw has served as an administrative center since the times of Sigismund Augustus. It was here that the sessions of the Sejm and the Senate were held, and it was here that the highest royal officials ruled. In the second half of the 16th century, the castle was completed by the wife of the second elected king Polish Stephen Bathory - Anna Jagiellon.

The next king was Sigismund III Vasa and it was he who decided to make Warsaw his permanent residence. Hence the need for further expansion to accommodate the Sejm, the royal court and the highest offices. The reconstruction began in 1591 and lasted almost 30 years - until 1619. The castle then obtained its present appearance. A pentagonal courtyard was created, closing it with the northern, western and southern wings. Above the gate in the west wing, the Clock Tower (Zygmuntowska Tower) was erected, this wing became the front of the new complex. Its corners are accentuated by two small turrets. These works

The castle in the photo from 1937

were carried out by Giovanni Trevano, Giacomo Rodondo, Mateo Castelli and Paolo del Corte.

The work started by Sigismund was continued by his successor - Władysław IV. The Władysław Tower adjacent to the Great and New House, in which there are stairs leading to the royal apartments, comes from this period of reconstruction. He also took care of the wonderful artistic and painting décor of the rooms. He raised the southern wing by one storey and placed a theater hall in it. In front of the castle in 1644, to honor his father, he erected a column with his statue. The author of the design of this monument was Constantino Tencalla, and the figure of the king himself was created by Clemente Molle.

The castle no longer had any military significance at that time. On the other hand, its splendor as a royal residence was constantly increased by successive rulers. An extraordinary number of works of art, both foreign and domestic, were collected, and paintings were commissioned from the greatest painters working in Warsaw and Gdańsk. In the castle theatre, plays by William Shakespeare, Christopher

View from the east, photo by ZeroJeden, IV 2005

Marlowe and Thomas Dekker were staged by actors coming from England. Both ballet and opera were staged here, and there was a court band. On the initiative of Ladislaus IV's second wife, Marie Louise Gonzaga de Nevers, scientific life flourished in the castle.

The period of prosperity was interrupted by the Swedish Deluge. The castle was surrounded by earthen bastions, but the Swedish army captured it without firing a single shot. The castle was completely looted and then used as a hospital and stables. Only the wall décor survived, which for understandable reasons could not be removed, including the wall paintings in the Marble Room.

After the castle was regained, it was quickly prepared for the sessions of the Sejm, but King Jan Kazimierz lived for the time being in the palace at Krakowskie Przedmieście. The first performance after the Swedish invasion was staged in the castle's theatre hall. The next ruler renovated the royal apartments, giving them a new décor. Further construction works on the destroyed castle were undertaken to a greater extent

Drawing by Mieczysław Czernicki from 1884

by Jan III Sobieski, who resided in the castle again. After the destruction of the Northern War, during the reconstruction, Augustus II added a spacious palace, later called the Saxon Palace.

Although the castle had already partially regained its rank at that time, the former glory of the castle was restored only by King Stanisław August. During his reign in the years 1764-1795, he created an outstanding interior composition. In his works, he used the greatest designers and stucco artists from France and Italy. The northern and southern façades were rebuilt from the courtyard side, during the reconstruction of the southern wing after the fire of 1767,

Panorama of Warsaw from 1754, Johann Christ Haffner

the Great Hides were erected and the Crown Horse Guard Hall was arranged. These works were carried out by Jakub Fontana, who had already worked here during the reign of Augustus III. After his death, Merlini became the court architect. He dealt with, among other things, the décor of the rooms in the eastern wing. In the years 1779-1782, the building of the Royal Library was erected.

The last chapters of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were closed in the castle. In the Chamber of Deputies in 1773, the Treaty of the Partition of Polish was adopted. It was also here that the Republic of Poland rose up for the last time before losing its independence, and in 1791, despite the turmoil, it adopted the Constitution of 3 May.

The last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, left his royal residence on 7 January

Sigismund Tower in a photo from before 1939

1795, taking most of the castle collections to Grodno forever. Warsaw was handed over to Prussia under the Treaty of St. Petersburg, and the castle became a provincial residence of the Prussian king for a period of 10 years.

Until 1830, the Sejm of the Congress Kingdom of Poland met here for meetings. During the November Uprising, Tsar Nicholas I was dethroned in the Chamber of Deputies as the king of Poland. In the post-uprising period, the tsarist governors resided in the castle. The thrones from the Senatorial and Throne Chambers were taken away, as well as a number of paintings and furnishings.

After 1918, the Council of Ministers stated that the castle would become a representative building of the Republic of Poland. In the years 1921-1924, Soviet Russia returned the works of art looted by the tsar. This made it possible to fully reconstruct the m.in. Knights' Hall, the Audience Hall and the Canaletto Hall. Unfortunately, other countries did not make a similar gesture, whose armies seized valuable historical memorabilia from the castle. The restoration works were carried out under the direction of Kazimierz Skórewicz, and from 1928 Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz. In 1926, the castle became the residence of President Ignacy Mościcki.

The castle, bombed by the Nazis on September 17, 1939, was consumed by fires for 10 days. After extinguishing them, the City Council tried to save the building, but the

Aerial photo, photo by ZeroJeden, VII 2019

Nazis immediately stopped it and decided to destroy the castle as a symbol of the Polish state and nation. Interiors and equipment were dismantled, ten thousand holes for explosives were selected. At that time, the team of the National Museum led by Stanisław Lorentz managed to enter the castle and save fragments of stucco, fireplaces, floors, friezes, columns and parts of wall paintings from destruction. Throughout the years of occupation, the castle remained as a ruin, additionally damaged during the fights during the Warsaw Uprising.

Despite appeals and resolutions of the Sejm, it was not possible to start works aimed at rebuilding the castle for a long time. However, the significance of these plans was realized. By 1971, only the Tin-Roof

Orchestra at the Castle Square, photo by ZeroJeden, X 2005

Palace and the Library building had been renovated. From the ruins, more fragments of stonework and equipment were extracted. Stanisław Lorentz, who with great dedication saved fragments of equipment from being blown up, now did not stop calling for the reconstruction to begin. On January 20, 1971, the Citizens' Committee for the Reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw was established. From that moment on, the work finally moved forward. Rich documentation and iconography allowed for the execution of faithful reconstruction plans. Before the construction works began, archaeological research was carried out, which significantly deepened the knowledge of the earlier history of the castle. During the construction works, wherever possible, the surviving fragments were incorporated into the reconstructed walls. Poles and the Polish diaspora abroad did not spare donations and donations, 1 billion zlotys and 820 thousand dollars were collected, which allowed to completely cover the costs of the works, the help from the state budget turned out to be unnecessary.