Poland · 15th century
Szydłowiec Castle (Castle of the Szydłowiecki and Radziwiłł families, Radziwiłł Palace) is a historic castle in the town of Szydłowiec.
A former Gothic and Renaissance residence of the Szydłowiecki and Radziwiłł families and of Princess Anna Sapieżyna, it is one of the town's principal monuments.
It was built by Stanisław Szydłowiecki between 1470 and 1480 on the site of a former stronghold of the knightly Odrowąż family. Between 1515 and 1526 the Gothic castle was rebuilt and enlarged into a Renaissance residence by Mikołaj Szydłowiecki, Grand Treasurer of the Crown.
Albrycht Władysław Radziwiłł carried out the last remodelling of the castle between 1619 and 1629, in the late Renaissance and Baroque styles.
In 1802 the castle and the Szydłowiec estates were bought by Princess Anna Sapieżyna Zamoyska, who sold them in 1828 to the treasury of the Kingdom of Poland. Soon afterwards it was leased to Maurycy Engerman, who set up a beer store there. Unused from the mid-19th century, it fell into ruin, and only in the 1960s was the building fully restored. The castle was handed over to local public institutions, and it is now the seat of the Szydłowiec Cultural Centre – Castle and of the Museum of Folk Musical Instruments.
Machine-translated from “Zamek w Szydłowcu” on the Polish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Szydłowiec Castle ranks #6,716 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #254 of the 398 mapped in Poland. Founded 1470, it is older than 46% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 554 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. The nearest day-trip guide is Radom, 30 km away. See how Poland compares in the castle statistics.
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