Ruins of the Wronin Castle in Czorsztyn

Monuments

Wysokie drzewa bez liści i choinki a za nimi ruiny zamkowe z wieżą kwadratową z otworami i flagą biało-czerwoną oraz fragmenty murów obronnych. Obok wieży widoczny w części środkowej zamku, dach pokryty blachą z otworami okiennymi. Na dole po lewej mostek drewniany z barierkami. Dalej pokryte śniegiem pola a w tle ośnieżone, powite w chmurach skaliste góry Tatry, w świetle zachodzącego słońca.

34-440 Czorsztyn Tourist region: Pieniny i Spisz

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The ruins of a 14th-century Gothic castle, situated on a hill above Lake Czorsztyńskie, with a picturesque view of the surrounding hills, are in the Pieniny National Park. The fortress used to guard the border with Hungary and the Dunajec River crossing, and the most famous event in its history was an attack made by Alexander Kostka-Napierski in the middle of the 17th century.

According to the tradition about which Jan Długosz wrote, the nobleman Piotr Wydżga was the owner of the Castle in 1246. However, the real founder of the watchtower was Princess Kinga, and the Castle called Wronin was mentioned in a document from 1320. The discovered remains of wooden buildings and an earthen rampart come from the 13^th century, while the foundations of the cylindrical tower, from the turn of the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

During the reign of Casimir the Great, the Castle, expanded and surrounded by walls and situated on the trade route to Hungary, became an important fortress with a customs house. It was facilitated by its location on a high rock above the Dunajec Valley. In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, the Castle was extended, and a lower castle called Przygródek was built. The stronghold became the seat of the starost of Czorsztyn, a resting place for travelling monarchs and a shelter during wars.

In 1629-1643, the starost Jan Baranowski, coat of arms Jastrzębiec, built a four-storey tower, today called Baranowski’s tower. In 1651, Aleksander Kostka-Napierski attacked and occupied the Castle during a peasant uprising. The adventurer, paid by a Cossack hetman, was supposed to distract Polish forces from fighting in Ukraine with Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s Cossacks. The Castle was recaptured by the army of Kraków bishop Piotr Gembicki, and the leader of the uprising was captured and executed.

In 1734-1735, during the struggle for the throne between Augustus II and Stanisław I Leszczynski, the Cossack army destroyed the Castle. The Drohojowski family bought the Castle in 1790 along with the Czorsztyn estate with its ruins in 1819; it remained in their hands until 1945.

Today, the preserved ruins of the middle and upper Castle, Baranowski’s Renaissance tower and Zieleniec are open to the public. Several reconstructed rooms house a historical and archaeological exhibition. The Castle is under the protection of the Pieniny National Park, where one can find the Erysimum pieninicum, endemic to Pieniny, and observe the mountain Apollo on its flowers. The Castle offers a panoramic view of Lake Czorsztyńskie, the Pieniny and the Tatra Mountains.