Zywiec Habsburg Castle

Zywiec has two houses in the same park. The old castle is sixteenth-century, Renaissance, with an arcaded courtyard, and it holds the town museum. The new palace was built alongside for the Habsburg branch that held the estate from 1838, finished in the early twentieth century in an English Tudor manner with a tower, and its restored rooms show the family's life here - the Zywiec Habsburgs stayed until 1939 and one branch of the family returned to Poland after 1989. Around both runs a park of about twenty-six hectares with a Chinese pavilion on an island and old trees. Next door is the brewery the archduke Albrecht founded in 1856, which became one of the best-known Polish beer brands and still runs, with a museum in its old cellars covering the brewing history and the way the label survived nationalisation with its dancers on it.

What you actually see

• Two houses in one park - a Renaissance castle and a Tudor-style Habsburg palace.
• An arcaded courtyard - the sixteenth-century core, with the town museum in it.
• A Chinese pavilion - on an island in the twenty-six-hectare park.
• The 1856 brewery - founded by the archduke, with a museum in its cellars.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The brewery museum is a separate ticket and books ahead in summer. Palace interiors cover a limited number of rooms. Closed Mondays. The park is free but the buildings are not.

Nearby

The Zywiec Beskids rise south; Bielsko-Biala is north.