Brzeg Castle

The castle at Brzeg was rebuilt in the middle of the sixteenth century for Duke George II of Brzeg into the finest Renaissance building in Silesia, with an arcaded courtyard on the Italian model, and it is known as the Silesian Wawel for the resemblance. Its remarkable feature is the gatehouse: a three-storey stone frontispiece covered in sculpture, with busts of twenty-four rulers of the Piast dynasty set in medallions running up it, tracing the line from the legendary founder down to the duke's father, Frederick II, with life-size statues of the duke and his wife above the arch - a dynastic argument carved in stone, and a rare survival of that kind of programme anywhere. The Piasts of Brzeg-Legnica were the last branch of the dynasty and died out here in 1675. The castle was wrecked in the eighteenth century and again in 1945 and rebuilt from the 1960s; it now houses the Museum of the Silesian Piasts, with the ducal mausoleum in the adjoining church of St Hedwig.

History

A small fortress with a moat and walls was built here in 1235 under Henry I the Bearded, and the Piast dukes of Brzeg lived in it from 1311 until 1675; it became the seat of the duchy in 1342, and in 1370 Duke Ludwik I extended it and built the chapel with the dynasty's mausoleum. Rebuilding began in 1544 under Frederick II of Legnica and was finished in 1560, adding two new wings, a large courtyard and the gate tower with busts of the Piast princes; after damage in 1741 and a fire in 1801, it was rebuilt in Renaissance style from 1966 and again from 1980 to 1994 (Wikipedia, Brzeg Castle).

Highlights

• The carved gatehouse - twenty-four Piast rulers in medallions up three storeys.
• An arcaded courtyard - Italian Renaissance work of the 1550s.
• The Museum of the Silesian Piasts - inside the rebuilt wings.
• The ducal mausoleum - in St Hedwig's church alongside.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

Most of the fabric is post-1960 reconstruction; the gatehouse sculpture is the main original survival. The museum is modest in scale. Closed Mondays, with short winter hours. The town itself has little else.

Nearby

Wroclaw is forty-five kilometres north-west; Opole is south-east.

Key facts