Pieskowa Skała Castle

Pieskowa Skała castle, built by King Casimir III the Great (Kazimierz Wielki), is one of the best-known examples of a defensive Polish Renaissance architecture. It was erected in the first half of the 14th century. It is part of the chain of fortified castles along the Trail of the Eagle's Nests, along the highland plane of the Polish Jura (Polish: Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska) extending north-west from Kraków to the city of Częstochowa.

The castle was renovated and donated in 1377 by king Louis I of Hungary (Ludwik Węgierski) to Piotr Szafraniec of Łuczyce, according to the 15th century chronicler Jan Długosz.The Szafraniec family gained the full ownership rights of the castle in 1422 from King Władysław Jagiełło in recognition of faithful service at the Battle of Grunwald by Piotr Szafraniec, the chamberlain of Kraków.

The castle was rebuilt in 1542–1544 by Niccolò Castiglione with participation from Gabriel Słoński of Kraków. The sponsor of the castle's reconstruction in the mannerist style was the Calvinist, Stanisław Szafraniec, voivode of Sandomierz.[2] At that time the original medieval tower was transformed into a scenic double loggia decorated in the sgraffito technique. Between 1557 and 1578, the trapezoid shape courtyard was surrounded at the level of two upper storeys by arcades, embellished with 21 mascarons. The arcade risalit above the gate is a 17th-century addition.

The last owner of the castle of Szafraniec family was Jędrzej, Stanisław's son, who died childless in 1608. After his death the estate was purchased by Maciej Łubnicki and later by the Zebrzydowski family. In 1640 Michał Zebrzydowski built the bastion fortifications with baroque gate and a chapel. The castle changed hands many times over the centuries.

By the end of the 19th century the property was bought by a Chmurski, a lawyer from Cracow. At the foot of the castle he built a fine villa for holiday purposes. However, bad management of the castle led to debts. The debt was so high that in 1902 Pieskowa Skała was put for auction. The castle was bought by the Joint-stock Association of Pieskowa Skała Castle, established for this purpose. A hotel was established in the bought property, which operated until the outbreak of the World War II.

During German occupation the castle served as a shelter for orphans from Zamojszczyzna and Wołyń and for refugees after the Warsaw Uprising.

After the war the property was nationalised. It had been in the ownership of the Ministry of Agriculture for several years. Since 1949 a series of archaeological and renovation works started. It resulted in opening a museum which is a branch of the National Art Collections on Wawel

In the silhouette of the building, layers of several centuries are visible. The oldest Gothic elements include a round tower and the lower part of the premises of the actual castle. Gothic remains are also in the gate tower from the fourteenth century. In the western part of the courtyard on the ground floor, there are two medieval arcades.

One of them houses a well, 56 meters deep. The castle with a renovated two-story loggia and a magnificent courtyard with two-story cloisters is primarily the work of Stanisław Szafraniec and dates from the 16th century. The castle also has a baroque chapel and bastion fortifications with an entrance gate decorated with Zebrzydowski’s coat of arms.

In the crypts at the castle in Pieskowa Skała, there are four mannerist sarcophagi of the Sieniawski from the 17th century. Originally they were in one of the most significant Polish mausoleums in the chapel in Brzeżany in Podolia. The church and chapel were utterly devastated after 1945. Fortunately, sarcophagi survived thanks to their deportation during the Polish-Russian war in 1920 to Krakow.

Today it houses a museum of historical interiors - a section of the Royal Castle Museum in Wawel.