Die Burg Vilich oder Schneckenburg (heutige Burg Lede) liegt in der Niederung des alten Siegbettes zwischen Vilich und Geislar
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Die Burg Vilich oder Schneckenburg (heutige Burg Lede) liegt in der Niederung des alten Siegbettes zwischen Vilich und Geislar
view of the old town, Zamek Lubelski (Lublin Castle) and the Castle Tower (Donjon) from Zaułek Władysława Panasa (Władysław Panas's alley)
One of the most charming places in Lublin is Panas's Zaułek (Panas's Alley), a staircase that leads from Po Farze Square toward St. Adalbert's Church located on Podwale Street. The alley was named after the well-known Lublin literary theorist and expert on Jewish culture Professor Władysław Panas in 2006. Above the staircase on the left in place of today's tenements, there used to be a defensive wall leading to Grodzka Gate.
Władysław Ludwik Panas, literature theoretician and historian, was born on 28th March, 1947, in Western Pomerania. He was born in Dębica, in Kołobrzeg poviat. He passed matura exam in 1966 in a High School in Kołobrzeg.
He started studies on Polish Philology in the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. There, he took part in famous March demonstrations. In March 1968 he took part in students' protest – which led to his arrest by SB (communist Security Service) on the second day. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and later relegated from the university.
Then, he came to continue his studies in Lublin in The Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). His debut was a critical essay on Tadeusz Gajcy's poetry in "Polonista" magazine. In 1972, he completed the faculty of Polish Philology and defended his MA thesis – On the Concept of Language in Bruno Schulz prose.
In the 1970s he cooperated with the underground periodical "Spotkania".
He was editing staff member of "Miesiące" in the period when the "Solidarity" was forming. During the martial law he wrote articles under different pseudos.
The professor was fascinated by vanished world of Lublin Jewish culture. He was inspired by Hasidic Judaism and mistical Kabbalah. He gave a particular contribution to revealing the intriguing history of Grodzka Gate and its multicultural tradition. He saw it as the center of the world and read its magical space, seeing analogies in equal distances from the Grodzka Gate to Po Farze Square and from the Gate to the tzadik's house at Szeroka 28 St.
He died on 24 January, 2005. He was buried on the cemetary at Lipowa St.
view of Zamek Lubelski (Lublin Castle) from the arcade viaduct on Zamkowa (Castle) Street
The Lublin Castle (Zamek Lubelski) is a medieval castle in Lublin, Poland, adjacent to the Old Town district and close to the city center. It is one of the oldest preserved royal residencies in Poland, initially established by High Duke Casimir II the Just. Its contemporary Gothic Revival appearance is largely due to a reconstruction undertaken in the 19th century.
The hill it is on was first fortified with a wood-reinforced earthen wall in the 12th century. In the first half of the 13th century, the stone keep was built. It still survives and is the tallest building of the castle, as well as the oldest standing building in the city. In the 14th century, during the reign of Casimir III the Great, the castle was rebuilt with stone walls. Probably at the same time, the castle's Chapel of the Holy Trinity was built as a royal chapel.
In the first decades of the 15th century, King Władysław II Jagiełło commissioned a set of frescoes for the chapel. They were completed in 1418 and are preserved to this day. The artist was a Ruthenian, Master Andrej, who signed his work on one of the walls. Because of their unique style, mixing Western and Eastern Orthodox influences, they are acclaimed internationally as an important historical monument.
Under the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty the castle enjoyed royal favor and frequent stays by members of the royal family. The sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon were brought up in the castle under the tutelage of Jan Długosz. In the 16th century, it was rebuilt on a grandiose scale, under the direction of Italian masters brought from Kraków. The most momentous event in the castle's history was the signing in 1569 of the Union of Lublin, the founding act of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
As a consequence of the wars in the 17th century (The Deluge), the castle fell into disrepair. Only the oldest sections, the keep and the chapel, remained intact. After Lublin fell under Russian rule following the territorial settlement of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the government of Congress Poland, on the initiative of Stanisław Staszic, carried out a complete reconstruction of the castle between 1826 and 1828. The new buildings were in the English neo-Gothic style, completely different from the structures they replaced, and their new purpose was to house a criminal prison. Only the keep and the chapel were preserved in their original state.
The castle was a prison for the next 128 years: as a Tsarist prison from 1831 to 1915, in independent Poland from 1918 to 1939, and most infamously during the Nazi German occupation from 1939 to 1944. Under Tsarist Russia prisoners included Polish resistance members, one of the most notable being writer Bolesław Prus. When between 40,000 and 80,000 inmates, many of them Polish resistance fighters and Jews, passed through. During World War II, the Castle Chapel was the location of a German court. Many prisoners were sent from the castle to concentration camps, including nearby Majdanek. Just before withdrawing on 22 July 1944, the SS and German prison officers massacred over 300 of the remaining prisoners. After 1944, the castle continued as a prison of the Soviet secret police and later of the Soviet-installed communist regime of Poland and, until 1954, about 35,000 Poles fighting against the new communist government (especially cursed soldiers) passed through it, of whom 333 died.
In 1954, the castle prison was closed. Following reconstruction and refurbishment, since 1957 it has been the main site of the National Museum.
front view of Zamek w Pszczynie (Pszczyna Castle) from across the park pond
Pszczyna Castle (Polish: Zamek w Pszczynie, German: Schloss Pleß) is a classical-style palace in the town of Pszczyna in southern Poland. Constructed as a castle in 13th century or earlier, in a Gothic architectural style, it was rebuilt in a Renaissance style in the 17th century. During the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the exterior of the castle was partially changed into a Baroque-Classical style. The Classicist modernization transformed the complex into what is usually described a palace.
In its history the castle was a residence of Polish, incl. Silesian, Piast dukes, then the German von Promnitz noble clan (mid-16th to mid-18th centuries) and later the German von Pless family. The castle became owned by the state after the death of the last Prince of Pless, Hans Heinrich XV in 1936.
The historic Pszczyna Park, part of the castle complex of the Pszczyna princes, is considered one of the most beautiful in Upper Silesia. It has an area of almost 160 ha and consists of three different parts. The main, central part is the actual Castle Park. From the east, it is bordered by the much smaller Park Dworcowy, stretching along the Pszczynka River, and from the west by the so-called Dzika Promenada or Zwierzyniec, i.e. large, less developed forest and park areas in the Pszczynka valley, created after the large city pond was drained in 1792. The extensive area of the Historic Pszczyna Park is an attractive place for both rest and recreation.
The Castle Park covers an area of almost 50 ha. It was created in the second half of the 18th century, although already in the 16th century there was a small vegetable garden on the western side of the castle and a menagerie in the north-western part of the current park. Created during the Baroque reconstruction of the residence of the Pszczyna princes, it referred to the multi-axis assumptions of the great French architect André Le Notré, subordinated to the dominant shape of the palace building. On the northern side of the Pszczyna Castle, three alleys were marked out, radiating from the main façade of the palace. In the mid-19th century, the castle garden began to be transformed into a landscape park, the so-called English. At that time, among other things, the main, central alley was eliminated, replacing it with a vast clearing opening towards the newly built ponds on the Pszczynka River and the hills in the northern part of the park. Over time, in the park, which was transformed in the mid-19th century, all the elements characteristic of this type of layout appeared: extensive viewing openings, picturesque clusters of trees and shrubs, numerous backwaters and ponds with islands and arched bridges, open meadows and solitary, spreading trees. The banks of ponds and canals were planted with "weeping" trees, with branches and branches hanging just above the water. There are numerous, magnificent and powerful: English oaks, hornbeams, common and red beeches, horse-chestnuts, yews, eastern white pines, small-leaved limes, ashes, elms, larches, silver spruces, birches, maples and plane trees, as well as willows and tulip trees. Among the many interesting shrubs, the beautiful specimens of rhododendrons (flowering in late spring) and smaller azaleas are worthy of attention.
view of Zamek w Pszczynie (Pszczyna Castle) and colorful rhododendrons
Pszczyna Castle (Polish: Zamek w Pszczynie, German: Schloss Pleß) is a classical-style palace in the town of Pszczyna in southern Poland. Constructed as a castle in 13th century or earlier, in a Gothic architectural style, it was rebuilt in a Renaissance style in the 17th century. During the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the exterior of the castle was partially changed into a Baroque-Classical style. The Classicist modernization transformed the complex into what is usually described a palace.
In its history the castle was a residence of Polish, incl. Silesian, Piast dukes, then the German von Promnitz noble clan (mid-16th to mid-18th centuries) and later the German von Pless family. The castle became owned by the state after the death of the last Prince of Pless, Hans Heinrich XV in 1936.
In 2009 it was voted as one of the "Seven Architectural Wonders of the Silesian Voivodeship" by the Silesian authorities and is often described as one of the most beautiful castle residences in Poland.
In the early the Middle Ages, Pszczyna was a stronghold of the Piast dynasty and several dukes of Poland. The town belonged to the historical region of Lesser Poland until 1177, when it became part of the Duchy of Racibórz. From this time on, it also was part of the Bishopric of Kraków. In 1548, the palace was sold to the noble Promnitz family from Saxony and given a Renaissance appearance, which it lost after a fire. It was subsequently rebuilt in a more baroque style.
In 1705, Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann became Kapellmeister to Erdmann II of Promnitz, privy Councillor to Augustus II the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, and spent considerable time at the Pszczyna Palace when the latter's court summered there. This gave Telemann an opportunity to study Polish and Moravian folk music, which fascinated and inspired him.
In 1742 Pless became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1848 the Duchy of Pless became a principality, ruled by the Hochberg-Fuerstenstein family until 1939. Between 1870 and 1876, reconstruction of the palace was directed by the French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur.
During the First World War, the palace, then in the Prussian Province of Silesia, at times hosted William II, German Emperor, and there are pictures on display of him together with Generals such as Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg discussing military operations. After the war and a plebiscite in 1921, the town became again part of Poland. Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 at the start of World War II, the complex was occupied by the Wehrmacht.
After the Second World War, Upper Silesia became part of the Polish People's Republic. For a brief period there was a Soviet military hospital in the palace, but in May 1946 it was turned into a museum, which still operates today.
