Golub-Dobrzyn Castle

Golub was built by the Teutonic Order around 1300 as a square brick castle with a courtyard and it kept that form, but in the early seventeenth century, when it belonged to Anna Vasa, sister of King Sigismund III, the top was rebuilt: a Renaissance attic parapet of curling stone volutes was set over the medieval walls, and the mismatch of a Gothic fortress wearing a decorative crown is what makes the building memorable. Anna Vasa was a botanist of some seriousness and grew tobacco in the castle gardens, reportedly among the first attempts in the region. The castle now holds a museum and hotel rooms and has run an international knights' tournament every July since 1977, the longest-running event of its kind in Poland, with jousting in the meadow below the walls. The town is two settlements, Golub and Dobrzyn, joined across the Drweca in 1951.

What you actually see

• A Teutonic square castle - built around 1300 around a courtyard.
• A Renaissance parapet - curling stone volutes set over the Gothic walls.
• Anna Vasa's gardens - where the king's sister grew tobacco.
• The July tournament - jousting below the walls, running since 1977.

When to go

April to October; July for the tournament. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Interiors are modest and partly given over to hotel use. Tournament week fills the town and the castle changes its opening. Winter hours are short. The two halves of the town are a walk apart.

Nearby

Torun is forty kilometres south-west; Brodnica is north-east.