Niedzica Castle

Niedzica, properly Dunajec Castle, was built in the early fourteenth century on a limestone spur above the Dunajec gorge to guard what was then the Hungarian side of the border; Czorsztyn, the Polish castle, stands on the opposite bank, and the two face each other across what is now a reservoir created when the river was dammed in the 1990s. Niedzica survived where Czorsztyn did not - it is roofed and furnished, with an upper and lower ward, arcaded courtyard and a museum inside, while Czorsztyn is a ruin. The legend that follows the place concerns a quipu, an Inca knotted cord, supposedly brought here in the eighteenth century by a descendant of Tupac Amaru through a Polish family connection and said to record the location of treasure; a document of this kind was reportedly found at the castle in 1946. There is no confirmed treasure. The rafting run through the Pieniny gorge starts nearby.

What you actually see

• A fourteenth-century border castle - roofed and furnished, on a spur over the water.
• Czorsztyn opposite - the rival castle, a ruin, across the reservoir.
• An arcaded courtyard - with the museum rooms off it.
• The quipu story - an Inca knotted cord reportedly found here in 1946.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The treasure legend is a legend and the castle sells it hard. Rooms are seen on a set route that gets crowded in July and August. Boat crossings to Czorsztyn are seasonal and weather-dependent.

Nearby

Czorsztyn ruins are across the water; the Dunajec raft run starts at Sromowce.