Castle in Złotoria

he first fortifications in Złotoria were erected by the Dobrzyń brothers, who were looking for defensive points during their Christianization expeditions to the Dobrzyn land.

According to Janek of Czarnków, around the middle of the fourteenth century, in the fork of the Vistula and Drwęca rivers, probably on the site of earlier fortifications, Casimir the Great erected a brick Gothic castle. The stronghold had a rectangular plan with an entrance gate on the south side, at the gate a square tower was added to the outer side of the walls. Both the perimeter walls and the walls of the tower were buttressed. There was a residential building in the courtyard, but due to the lack of research, its form cannot be determined yet. From the west and south, the castle was defended by the waters of the Vistula, from the north - by the Drwęca, while from the east there was a moat connecting both rivers. A small outer bailey was located north of the castle.

After the death of Casimir the Great, the castle was inherited by the king's grandson - Kazko Słupski, and soon after it was conquered by the pretender to the Polish crown Władysław the White.

As Ryszard Rogiński writes, an account of those events has been preserved. Władysław the White took control of the castle by deception. With the help of substituted people - among them was a miller named 

Aerial photo, photo by ZeroJeden, X 2018

Hanko - he drank wine from the careless commander and his crew until unconscious. This trick turned out to be effective. Later, troops loyal to King Louis of Hungary besieged Władysław the White in the castle. The prince tried to intrigue again, again using the miller Hanko, but he tried to betray the besieged, so after returning to the castle in front of all the troops he was burned alive in front of the gate.

While trying to regain the castle, Kaźko Słupski was seriously wounded, and as a result of these wounds he died in the castle in Bydgoszcz.

In the years 1379-1392, the castle was a fief of Władysław Opolczyk, who gave it to the Teutonic Knights. After the peace of Raciążek in 1404, he returned to Polish, but five years later the Teutonic Knights besieged the castle, using artillery for this purpose. Seriously damaged, however, it was quickly repaired, and in 1411 it returned to the borders of Poland. Until the beginning of the 19th century, it served only as the residence of landowners, but neglected, it slowly deteriorated. During the Napoleonic 

Ruins of Złotoria on a postcard from 1908

Wars, it was fired at from cannons and eventually abandoned.

Currently, the southern wall and the walls of the tower are partially preserved, the remaining part of the perimeter walls has survived only in the ground floor or completely disappeared covered with earth.

To get to the ruins, driving from Toruń, you need to stop at the first building on the right behind the bridge over the Drwęca River and follow a dirt path towards the Vistula for about 300 meters.

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