Lublin Castle and the Holy Trinity Chapel

The castle hill carries three buildings from three eras. A round stone keep from the thirteenth century stands at the back, the Holy Trinity Chapel sits in the middle, and the long white neo-Gothic block put up in the 1820s wraps around them and now holds the regional museum. The chapel is the reason to come. Its Gothic vaults and walls were covered in 1418 with frescoes painted by Orthodox masters from the east, a Byzantine cycle inside a western Gothic shell, and the painter left his name and the date on the wall. Numbers are limited and the air is controlled, so entry runs in timed slots of about twenty minutes.

History

The chapel probably stood by 1326, and in 1407 King Władysław Jagiełło had it rebuilt in Gothic style as a two-storey building over the old crypt. Ruthenian painters under Master Andrey covered its walls and vaults with frescoes in the 1410s, finishing in 1418, as a Cyrillic inscription records; in 1823-1826 it became the chapel of a new prison built in the castle and was plastered over (Wikipedia, Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Lublin Castle).

Highlights

• The Holy Trinity Chapel - Byzantine frescoes of 1418 covering the vaults and walls of a Gothic interior.
• The donjon - the round Romanesque keep, the oldest building in the city, with a view from the top.
• The museum galleries - Polish painting, folk collections and coins in the nineteenth century wing.
• The approach from the old town - the Grodzka Gate and the sloping bridge up to the gatehouse.

When to go

The chapel takes small groups on timed tickets, so book ahead or arrive at opening, particularly at weekends and through July and August. Spring and autumn are comfortable for the walk up from the old town. The museum wing closes on Mondays and runs shorter hours in winter, when the last chapel slot can be early in the afternoon.

Before you go

The chapel light is deliberately low and parts are glazed, so photographs come out badly and you get twenty minutes rather than an hour. The nineteenth century wing is plain and some of its displays are dated. The courtyard is bare and the hill is steep. The old town below is half restored and half peeling, which some visitors find disappointing.

Nearby

Lublin old town, the Krakow Gate and an open-air village museum on the western edge of the city.

Key facts