Chudów Castle

The castle in Chudów is a real historical gem of Gierałtowice Commune located not far from the city we are staying in. We took a bus and reached the bus stop in less than an hour. The castle is about half an hour walk from the bus stop. We crossed the neighboring village of Paniowki.

In warm season, Chudów Castle, the seemingly quiet place, becomes a cultural hub and a meeting place for many bikers and motor bikers. We saw bikers of different ages there.
The knight tournaments became traditional at that castle. We attended the 23rd Castle Tournament at Chudów Castle. It was advertized as a medieval fair, where you could meet a fairy-tale knight, attend a dance show and a historical re-enactment, which was something not to be missed. The atmosphere of the event was enhanced by the “medieval” music that could be heard at the fairgrounds.

The castle in Chudów is located in the village of Chudów, about 10 km from the city of Gliwice in the Silesian Voivodeship. Chudów appears for the first time in written sources during the times of the Bishop of Wrocław, Henryk of Wierzbna, when in 1305 he was listed among the towns obliged to pay tithing to the bishop's seat. The beginnings of the brick castle in Chudów date back to the thirties of the 16th century. The first historically confirmed owner of Chudów was Jan de Hodow, who appears in sources on October 15, 1434.

It is worth adding here that over the centuries, Chudow Castle changed its owners many times. However, Jan Gierałtowski, who played an important role in the then Duchy of Bytom, is considered the builder of the brick castle in Chudów. As a wealthy owner of a property complex (including Chudów, Gierałtowice, Przyszowice, Knurów), he carried out a number of investments. Being a wealthy knight, who cares about his prestige, he undertook to transform the former wooden seat of the Chudow Family into a brick defensive and residential complex. He administered the construction of a brick building on the site of a wooden defensive tower. The brick building has a rectangular plan with a courtyard and cloisters typical of the Renaissance.

There was a moat around which today only a wooden bridge and a dry trough remain.
Castle owners are listed at the castle museum.
1434 Jan de Chodow
1452-1459 Jan Sudisz
1475 Jakub Chudowski
1483-1520 Mikołaj Chudowski
Renaissance times:
1532-1562 Jan Gierałtowski
1562-1596 Wacław Gierałtowski the Elder
1596-1605 Agnieszka Rogoyska
1609-1622 Wacław Gierałtowski the Younger
1622-1627 Joanna Sedlinicka
1630 Karol Huss
1630-1669 Jan Skall
1669-1671 Jadwiga Skall
1671-1675 Jadwiga Salomea Kotulińska
1675 -1687 Jerzy Bernard Welczek
1687-1691 Anna Zuzanna von Rauthen
1692-1700 Juliana Urszula Oppersdorf
1700-1706 Jerzy Bernard Welczek
1700-1706 Antoni Wacław Oppersdorf
1706-1726 Jan Mikołaj Foglar
1726-1740 Jerzy Jarosław Foglar
1740-1767 Karol Jarosław Foglar
1767-1772 Erdmuta von Roedern
1772-1790 Maciej Wilczek
1790-1794 Pawełl Wilczek
1794-1806 August Detlew von Schlippenbach
1806-1807 Jan Kanty Bobrowski
1807-1825 Magdalena Bobrowska
1825-1837 Jan Feliks Blandowski
1837-1848 Aleksander von Bally
1848-1850 Aleksander von Dyckern
1850-1861 Joanna Gryzik von Schomberg-Godulla
1861-1905 Hans Urlich von Schaffgotsch

Chudów Castle was not a great stronghold. It was a small two-house lowland castle, which is similar to a rectangle, with dimensions of 30 m x 28 m. The building was made of stone and brick, with a small central courtyard inside with cloisters and a well. The complex had two three-storey residential buildings, covered with high gable roofs and a four-sided, five-storey tower measuring 8.5 m x 11 m, covered with a high hip roof, with the main entrance from the south-west with a wooden bridge over the castle moat. The sixth floor was added during the 19th century reconstruction. The castle began to decline after the period of its greatest splendor, which this building had in the 18th century, when it became one of the most splendid, vibrant places in Silesia. Alexander von Bally carried out a reconstruction of the castle in the nineteenth century, and his family is remembered here. There was a big fire of the castle in 1875, and, as a result, it turned into a romantic ruin. It was preserved as such by the then owners - Joanna von Schomberg-Godulla and her husband Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch. They commissioned an archaeological research within the castle courtyard.

A breakthrough for the castle was in 1995, when the foundation "Chudów Castle" was established. Its goal is reconstructing the building. Thanks to its activities, in 2001, the reconstruction of the castle tower began. Since 2004, the partially reconstructed tower of the 16th-century castle built by Jan Gierałtowski houses a museum. The exhibits presented in it come from the extensive archaeological research conducted in this area since 2001. The castle museum is open to visitors from the end of April, every Saturday, and Sunday, as well as on public holidays.

The 23rd Knights Tournament, Chudow_Visiting the castle museum

The castle museum contains a lot of archaeological finds, among them foundation sacrifices. Their aim was to prevent from misfortune and to provide success for oneself and relatives in the place of living. These offerings were usually made under the foundations of new buildings and they most often consisted of different objects and food for household spirits. In Poland, such rites were known from the earliest times. In Chudow castle, two such sacrifices were discovered under the foundations of buildings that stand in the courtyard. The third sacrifice, made as votive offering, was found under the wooden bottom of the castle well.

If you want to visit this place, check the calendar of events on the page of the Black Horse Inn (“Oberża "Czarny Koń" in Polish”).The inn is located right next to the castle. It was reconstructed from historical illustrations and is nicknamed "Oberża pod Świętem Jerzy" (St.George’s Inn”).

Tekla Poplar
About 150 meters from the castle you can see the oldest lush poplar in Poland, called Tekla. The first mixtures of Canadian poplars arose in France at the beginning of the 17th century. According to the measurement from May 2013, the Chudów poplar is the thickest mono-stem Canadian poplar in Poland, measuring 7.24 m in circumference (the largest circumference on the section from the subsoil to the height of 1.3 m) and 2.30 m in diameter. Such a size gives Tekla the 36th place in Poland in the category of thickness of all Polish trees (according to the Register of Polish Monument Trees). According to the measurement from May 2013, the Tekla Poplar is 31.50 m high, which places it on the 92nd place in Poland. The poplar has had the status of a nature monument since 1981. It is the oldest and thickest lush poplar in Poland. Already in 1981, it was awarded the title of a natural monument.
The tree has a large space in its rotten trunk arranged as "Hut of the Pooh". There is a table and chairs inside, which makes it an interesting attraction for children.

Ancient boulder at the entrance to the bridge, Chudow

Ancient boulder at the entrance to the bridge
As you approach the castle, you will see a huge boulder, the origin of which you can learn from the information board. The huge stone was found near Taciszów during the construction of the A 4 motorway. This huge stone was allegedly transported from the area of today's Sweden by a huge glacier in ancient times.
You can see a monument to a drowner and a monument to the treasurer in the castle park.

Utopci
In Upper Silesia drowners are referred to as: utoplec, utopec, utoplashek,rokita, topielec, hasterman, yaroshek, Ivan, Franc, wasermon. Drowners were described the primal angels expelled from heaven for their pride and way of life. Those who fell into the hell became devils, those who fell into the water, became drowners.

Skarbnik
Skarbnik is the treasurer, a spirit that rewards for good deeds and punishes the evil. Some tales imply that the treasurer is one of the foremen who fell in love with working underground so much that in the hour of death he asked God to let him guard the treasures there until the end of the world. Sometimes it is also said that it was a rich miner, who punished by God for tormenting the miners and killing his daughter - Barbara, who became the patron saint of miners. This rich miner was sentenced to penance for all his evil deeds, and his possessions were transferred to the mine.
Coal miners learned to live and work always being aware of the presence of the treasurer in the coal mine. They knew that the spirit walked in the appearance of a fat treasurer and made sure that everything went well. And if anyone whistles, sometimes his mouth shakes, until he stops, and if someone uses curse language, then maybe the lamps will blink or crackle, or even go out.

Johanna Park
To reach the castle, we had to cross the neighboring village of Paniowki. The Joanna Park in Paniowki was founded at the initiative of the village residents at the beginning of the 21st century. Under her will, Joanna von Schaffgotsch did not omit anyone from the needy, and gave up 2.1 ha of land for the construction of a church free of charge (also allocating considerable material resources for this purpose), a cemetery and a presbytery in Paniowki. Currently, it is a place of leisure, social meetings and cultural events. In the park there is a playground for children and a stone sculpture and two bookcases for book crossing.

Karol Godula (1781-1848) was a Silesian magnate, nicknamed the "king of zinc and coal", did a lot for the development of mining and metallurgy in Upper Silesia.