*** CASTLE RUINS IN SOCHACZEW ***

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SOCHACZEW

the castle of the Mazovian Dukes (in ruins)

CASTLE RUIN IN SOCHACZEW

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING


T

he first, still wood­en-earth for­ti­fi­ca­tion may have been erect­ed here in the 12th cen­tu­ry. It served as the cap­i­tal of the cas­tel­lany, one of the main cen­ters of state ad­min­is­tra­tion in the then Ma­zo­vian dis­trict, which in­di­cates the men­tion of a So­cha­czew castel­lan named Fa­lan­ta (1221). The set­tle­ment was ir­re­triev­ably de­stroyed in 1286 by the troops of the Ruthe­ni­an Duke Vla­di­mir Va­syl­ko­vich sup­port­ed by the Lith­ua­ni­ans, so it func­tioned for lit­tle more than a cen­tu­ry. It was on­ly on the ini­tia­tive of one of the Ma­zo­vian dukes: Sie­mo­wit II (d. 1345) or Sie­mo­wit III (d. 1381), that a Goth­ic cas­tle was erect­ed on the grounds of the for­mer wood­en strong­hold. Its ex­is­tence in the mid­dle of the 14th cen­tu­ry is con­firmed by a doc­u­ment from De­cem­ber 27, 1355, which lists the brick cas­tles in Ma­zo­via, among them ca­strum in So­cha­czew.




RUINS BEFORE AND AFTER REVITALIZATION

T

he oldest men­tion of So­cha­czew as a town dates back to 1323, al­though it is pos­si­ble that it was lo­cat­ed as ear­ly as the end of the 13th cen­tu­ry. Dur­ing the reign of the dukes of Ma­zo­via, it played an im­por­tant role as the mil­i­tary, ad­min­is­tra­tive and po­lit­i­cal cen­ter of the re­gion, which is ev­i­denced by the fact that it was here that the con­ven­tion of no­ble­men and dukes took place in 1377, dur­ing which the cus­tom­ary laws bind­ing in the whole re­gion were co­di­fied. In 1410, at the foot of the cas­tle the roy­al army of Wła­dy­sław Ja­gieł­ło marched, and prob­a­bly al­so stopped here, on their way to war with the Teu­ton­ic Or­der. Four years lat­er, al­though not in the cas­tle but in the town square, on the fourth an­niver­sary of the Bat­tle of Grun­wald, the king's de­puty Za­wi­sza Czar­ny (d. 1428) solemn­ly de­clared war on the Teu­ton­ic Knights (known as the Hunger War).



RUIN ON PAINTING BY KAZIMIERZ STRONCZYŃSKI, 1850


MAZOVIAN RULERS IN SOCHACZEW (THE PERIOD OF THEIR RULE)

Leszek of Ma­zovia (1173-1186) - son of Bo­le­sław IV the Cur­ly and Wierz­cho­sła­wa of No­wo­gród, ruled from the age of thir­teen. An al­ly of the San­do­mierz Duke Ka­zi­mierz II the Just. Since child­hood he had se­ri­ous health prob­lems, which made his life short. He died child­less at the age of about 23.

Kaz­imierz II the Just (1186-1194) - the young­est son of Bo­le­sław III and Sa­lo­mea of Berg. Duke of Wi­śli­ca, San­do­mierz, Cra­cow, and from 1186 Ma­zo­via and Ku­ja­wy. As a young man, he stayed at the court of Fred­er­ick Bar­ba­ros­sa as a hos­tage of his broth­er's loy­al­ty to the em­per­or. He was re­gard­ed as an ex­cel­lent com­man­der and skill­ful politi­cian. Ka­zi­mierz had five sons and two daugh­ters. He died dur­ing a feast, drink­ing from a cup.


Kon­rad of Ma­zo­via (1194-1247) - son of Ka­zi­mierz II the Just and He­le­na. Duke of Less­er Poland, Ma­zo­via and Ku­ja­wy (un­til 1200 co-ruled with his broth­ers). He brought the Teu­ton­ic Knights to Poland. Kon­rad be­came known as a tyr­ant, for po­lit­i­cal pur­pos­es he re­peat­ed­ly kid­napped, im­pris­oned, maimed and killed. He mar­ried Aga­fia, a prin­cess of No­wo­gród-Sie­wierz. Ten chil­dren were born to him from this mar­riage: five daugh­ters and five sons.

Siemow­it I of Ma­zovia (1247-1262) - son of Kon­rad of Ma­zo­via and Aga­fia. While Kon­rad was still alive, he be­came a cru­el ex­ecu­tor of his sen­tences (in­clud­ing the tor­ture and hang­ing of the Płock schol­as­tic Jan Cza­pla). Sie­mow­it came in­to con­flict with his broth­er Ka­zi­mierz, as a re­sult of which he was im­pris­oned in the cas­tle of Sie­radz. He was killed in Jaz­dów (now Ujaz­dów, a dis­trict of War­saw) dur­ing an armed raid of Lith­ua­ni­an troops. He had three chil­dren: two sons and one daugh­ter.

Kon­rad II of Czersk (1264-1275) - son of Sie­mow­it and Pe­re­je­sła­wa. Dur­ing his youth he was held in Lith­ua­ni­an cap­tiv­i­ty. He took o­ver the rule at the age of 16, af­ter re­turn­ing from Lith­ua­nia. An al­ly of the Hun­gar­i­an king in his dy­nas­tic con­flict with Bo­he­mia. In 1275 he was forced to cede a part of Ma­zo­via with So­cha­czew to his broth­er Bo­le­sław. Kon­rad mar­ried prin­cess Jad­wi­ga, the daugh­ter of Si­le­sian Duke Bo­le­sław Ro­gat­ka. He had on­ly one daugh­ter.

Bolesław II of Ma­zovia (1275-1313) – Kon­rad's broth­er. He ruled in the Duchy of Płock from 1275, and in the whole of Ma­zo­via from 1294. At the be­gin­ning of the 14th cen­tu­ry, he found­ed a cas­tle in War­saw. Bo­le­sław mar­ried twice: to Gau­de­mun­da of Lith­ua­nia, and to Ku­ne­gun­da, daugh­ter of the King of Bo­he­mia. From these mar­riages he had three sons and two daugh­ters.



Siemow­it II of Rawa (1313-1345) - the el­dest son of Bo­les­ław II and Gau­de­mun­da. The duke of War­saw and Liw, from 1313 the Duke of Ra­wa. Sie­mo­wit II made al­liances with Teu­ton­ic Knights, which made him a threat to Pol­ish Duke Wła­dy­sław Ło­kie­tek. Sie­mo­wit nev­er mar­ried. He is con­sid­ered to be one of the most prob­a­ble found­ers of the cas­tle in So­cha­czew.


DRAWING BY F. BRZOZOWSKI, 1882


MAZOVIAN RULERS IN SOCHACZEW (THE PERIOD OF THEIR RULE)

Bolesław III of Płock (1345-1351) - son of the Duke of Płock Wań­ko and Eli­za­beth of Lith­ua­nia. He con­sid­ered him­self a vas­sal of Czech King Jan Luc­em­bur­ský, which was sup­posed to guar­an­tee him the ter­ri­to­ri­al in­tegri­ty of his duchy (lo­cat­ed be­tween two mighty coun­tries - Poland and Teu­ton­ic state). Bo­le­sław died, hit by an ar­row while chas­ing Kiej­stut, the ruler of Lith­ua­nia. He nev­er mar­ried.

Kaz­imierz I of War­saw (1351-1355) - son of the Duke Troj­den I of Czersk and Ma­ria Hal­ic­ka from the Ru­ryr­kow­icz fam­i­ly. Duke of Czersk, Ra­wa, and from 1349 of War­saw. In 1351, he paid homage to Ka­zi­mierz the Great, King of Poland, in ex­change for a promise to re­ceive the whole in­her­i­tance of Bo­le­sław III of Płock, if the king died child­less (Bo­le­sław be­queathed a large part of his lands to the king). Ka­zi­mierz of War­saw died young and had no wife.


Siemowit III (1355-1381) - broth­er of Ka­zi­mierz of War­saw, one of the most em­i­nent rulers of Ma­zo­via. For many years he was an al­ly of the Pol­ish King Ka­zi­mierz the Great, in 1364 par­tic­i­pat­ed in the fa­mous congress of Eu­ro­pean mon­ar­chs in Cra­cow. Af­ter the king's death, Sie­mow­it unit­ed Ma­zo­vian lands, is­sued a col­lec­tion of laws, re­formed ju­di­cia­ry, ad­min­is­tra­tion, and ducal tax sys­tem. He built cas­tles in Go­sty­nin and Ra­wa. He was mar­ried twice: to the Prin­cess Eu­phe­mia of Opa­wa and the Prin­cess An­na of Zię­bi­ce. The prince ac­cused An­na of mar­i­tal in­fi­deli­ty and had her stran­gled (his­tor­i­cal fact), and gave the al­leged bas­tard child (now a leg­end) to the vil­lagers to bring it up. This sto­ry is sup­posed to have in­spired Wil­liam Shake­speare, who used it in his dra­ma The Win­ter's Tale.

Siemowit IV of Płock (1381-1426) - son of Sie­mo­wit III and Eu­phe­mia of Opa­wa, can­di­date for the hus­band of Queen Jad­wi­ga and would-be king of Poland. Af­ter the death of Na­gy La­jos (King of Hun­ga­ry and Poland) he ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the strug­gle for the roy­al throne (some no­bles pro­claimed him king), dur­ing which he made an at­tempt to kid­nap Jad­wi­ga from Wa­wel. Dur­ing his reign in the duchy, he con­tin­ued its eco­nom­ic re­con­struc­tion, mod­ern­ized the law, and lo­cat­ed new towns. He mar­ried the Pol­ish king's sis­ter, Alek­san­dra Ol­gier­dów­na. Sie­mo­wit had as many as twelve chil­dren: five sons and sev­en daugh­ters. He be­came blind in his old age.

Siemowit V of Rawa (1426-1442) - the el­dest son of Sie­mo­wit of Płock and Alek­san­dra. He par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Bat­tle of Grun­wald, the war with Lith­ua­nia, and the Hus­site ex­pe­di­tion to Gdańsk. He was a can­di­date for the ti­tle of Grand Duke of Lith­ua­nia and for the Pol­ish throne (af­ter King Ja­gieł­ło's death). He was al­so in­volved in a fa­mous ar­gu­ment be­tween princes and bish­ops about who should take the place clos­est to King Wła­dy­sław III War­neń­czyk dur­ing his coro­na­tion. Sie­mo­wit mar­ried the princess of Ra­ci­bórz, Mał­go­rza­ta. He had one daugh­ter.

Władysław I of Płock (b. 1442-1455) - broth­er of Sie­mo­wit V, po­lit­i­cal man, par­tic­i­pant of many al­liances, but gen­er­al­ly not fa­vor­able to Poland. He was mar­ried to An­na Oleś­nic­ka and had two sons with her. He died of tu­ber­cu­lo­sis.

An­na of Oleśni­ca (1455-1476) - daugh­ter of the Sile­sian Duke Kon­rad V and Wła­dy­sław's wife. As a wid­ow, she re­ceived the castel­lany of So­cha­czew, which she ruled un­til 1476, when the land was an­nexed to the King­dom of Poland.



THE CASTLE IN PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

I

n 1476 Kaz­imierz Ja­giel­lończyk (d. 1492) in­cor­po­rat­ed a part of Ma­zo­via with the town of So­cha­czew to the King­dom of Poland and the act of in­cor­po­ra­tion was signed just in the cas­tle in So­cha­czew. From then on, the strong­hold no longer served as a ducal res­i­dence, but as the seat of a cas­tle star­ost with a chan­cellery and ar­chive, as well as a roy­al sta­tion serv­ing the ruler in his nu­mer­ous trips around the coun­try. In peace­time, the cas­tle was in­hab­it­ed by a small crew, called cas­tri fam­i­ly, which con­sist­ed of, apart from the starost and his deputy, a small con­tin­gent of mi­li­tia, a key-keep­er, a gate-keep­er or a door­keep­er, night watch­men, a cook and a wa­ter-car­ri­er. Six­teenth-cen­tu­ry doc­u­ments al­so men­tion the chap­lain and the bak­er, who worked in the cas­tle bak­ery but lived in the near­by vil­lage of Czer­won­ka.




THE RUINS IN 1909

A

l­ready at the be­gin­ning of the 16th cen­tu­ry the con­di­tion of the cas­tle left much to be de­sired, which could be at­tribut­ed to the un­sta­ble slope of the cas­tle hill, or per­haps by the lack of prop­er care by its hosts. This is ev­i­denced by the de­scrip­tion of the cas­tle from be­fore 1509, which states that its ex­te­ri­or walls, blanked, of brick, de­stroyed... Af­ter the death of Ja­kub Szy­dło­wiec­ki (d. 1509) the sta­ro­sty was tak­en o­ver by Krzy­sztof Szy­dło­wiec­ki (d. 1532), the Grand Chan­cel­lor and Voi­vode of Cra­cow, who al­so held the rare ti­tle of Count of Szy­dło­wiec. He re­paired the cas­tle walls, ren­o­vat­ed some of the rooms, and may have al­so es­tab­lished a roy­al chapel. At the same time, earth­en ram­parts adapt­ed to the use of fire­arms were built around the cas­tle. Lat­er, the starosts of So­cha­czew were, among oth­ers: Ra­fał Cy­bul­ski coat of arms Praw­dzic (d. 1567), Piotr Szcza­wiń­ski coat of arms Praw­dzic (d. ca. 1594), and Sta­ni­sław Tar­ło coat of arms To­pór (d. 1599). Ap­par­ent­ly, how­ev­er, they did not care enough about the cas­tle, be­cause by the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry it was in a very bad con­di­tion.



DESTRUCTION OF THE NORTHERN SLOPE OF THE CASTLE ESCARPMENT, PHOTO FROM THE 1920S

RECONSTRUCTION WORKS ON THE WESTERN SLOPE, 1936

I

n 1608 the north­ern part of the cas­tle col­lapsed as a result of a land­slide on the north-eastern slope of the hill. The dam­age was so ex­ten­sive that King Zyg­munt III Va­sa or­dered the then star­ost Sta­ni­sław Ra­dzie­jow­ski (coat of arms Ju­no­sza, d. 1637) to de­mol­ish the me­dieval walls and re­build the en­tire struc­ture in the Re­nais­sance or ear­ly Baroque style. The Pol­ish king was keen on this in­vest­ment, as he prob­a­bly planned to use the new­ly built cas­tle for a roy­al sta­tion or res­i­dence, which would host for­eign en­voys go­ing to War­saw. How­ev­er, with time - per­haps due to the king's fi­nan­cial prob­lems - the en­thu­si­asm for the pro­ject waned, and the con­struc­tion work last­ed a very long time and was even­tu­al­ly nev­er com­plet­ed. In 1638 the height of the walls reached on­ly above the first floor and the en­tire build­ing was cov­ered with a pro­vi­sion­al roof.



SOCHACZEW CASTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XVII CENTURY, CONCEPT AUTHOR: Ł. POPOWSKI, DRAWN BY B. SZUSTKIEWICZ

I

n 1655 the Swedes in­vad­ed and burnt down the cas­tle, caus­ing ir­repara­ble dam­age to the doc­u­ments and archives lo­cat­ed here. From then on, it re­mained ru­ined for more than cen­tu­ry and a half. It was not un­til 1789-90 that star­ost Ka­zi­mierz Wa­lic­ki (coat of arms La­da, d. 1795) man­aged to re­build it and put the chan­cellery and ar­chives there. This new build­ing served its pur­pose for on­ly four years, be­cause af­ter the out­break of the Koś­ciusz­ko Up­ris­ing in 1794 it was de­stroyed by the Prus­sian ar­tillery. Its re­con­struc­tion was nev­er un­der­tak­en again, and the aban­doned walls col­lapsed or were de­mol­ished o­ver time.




CASTLE HILL IN THE 1960S AND TODAY


HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING


T

he cas­tle hill is sit­u­at­ed south of the town, from which it is sep­a­rat­ed by a nar­row gorge. From the south and east, a deep moat was dug around the hill (seen in the pho­tos above), which made ac­cess to the cas­tle very dif­fi­cult. The top of the hill was oc­cu­pied by a brick cas­tle, which had a plan sim­i­lar to a trape­zoid with sides of 35x30 m and a to­tal area of about 1200 m2. The build­ings were dom­i­nat­ed by two tow­ers: the east­ern rect­an­gu­lar tow­er with sides of 4.5x7.5 m and the north­ern tow­er, whose plan and spa­tial lay­out is un­known. Pre­sum­ably, the tow­ers orig­i­nal­ly mea­sured no more than 5 to 8 me­ters in height, and were not raised un­til the 16th cen­tu­ry.




HYPOTHETICAL PLAN OF A XV-CENTURY CASTLE ACCORDING TO Ł. ADAMKOWSKI: 1. NORTH TOWER, 2. EAST TOWER
3. ROYAL HOUSE (MISSING ON PLAN), 4. OLD HOUSE (MISSING ON PLAN), 5. OLD GATE, 6. NEW GATE

A

t the end of the 15th cen­tu­ry two rep­re­sen­ta­tive res­i­den­tial build­ings stood on the cas­tle grounds: the roy­al house and the old house. The roy­al house was ad­ja­cent to the south­ern wall. It con­sist­ed of three sto­ries with food stor­age and cel­lars and (above) spa­cious liv­ing quar­ters for the ruler. The roy­al house was con­nect­ed to the west with the two-sto­ry old house, equipped with a cham­ber and a prison on the ground floor. Above them, the starost's of­fices were ar­ranged. The north­ern part of the cas­tle orig­i­nal­ly in­clud­ed the afore­men­tioned tow­er, and next to it an en­trance gate to the court­yard, which was prob­a­bly moved to the east­ern tow­er at the end of the 15th cen­tu­ry and pre­ced­ed by a long bridge.



VISUALIZATION OF A GOTHIC CASTLE IN SOCHACZEW BY JAN KANTY GUMOWSKI, 1938

A

t the be­gin­ning of the 16th cen­tu­ry, a build­ing called the new Szy­dło­wiec­ki's house was erect­ed in the north­ern part of the cas­tle. Its ground floor housed staff quar­ters, and the first floor - had sev­er­al rooms of a res­i­den­tial char­ac­ter. The cas­tle ar­se­nal was prob­a­bly lo­cat­ed in the east­ern tow­er. San­i­tary func­tions were per­formed by wood­en la­trines, in­stalled out­side the south­ern and west­ern wall. The cas­tle was al­so equipped with a bath­house, built on stilts by the riv­er. How­ev­er, it nev­er had its own well, so the wa­ter had to be de­liv­ered here by a wa­ter-car­ri­er.



THE WESTERN WING, BUILT ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MEDIEVAL 'OLD HOUSE'

P

rob­a­bly at the turn of the 15th and 16th cen­tu­ry two ram­parts were built to im­prove the de­fen­sive sys­tem of the cas­tle and to adapt it to the use of fire­arms. The main prob­lem, how­ev­er, con­cerned the in­suf­fi­cient sta­bil­i­ty of the ground on the cas­tle hill. It caused its slopes to slip, which in turn caused the brick walls to crack, re­sult­ing in a build­ing col­lapse (1608). The farm­stead, sit­u­at­ed out­side the cas­tle walls, served as a place for the cas­tle crew. It con­tained sta­bles for up to 120 hors­es, work­shops, tim­ber yards and a kitchen for the ser­vants. The vast area next to the farm­stead was used for pas­tures, or­chards and gar­dens.



TREASURY

REMAINS OF THE WEST WING

A

t the be­gin­ning of the 17th cen­tu­ry the north-east­ern part of the cas­tle col­lapsed as a re­sult of a land­slide. Con­se­quent­ly, the old cas­tle was de­mol­ished and a three-winged man­sion raised on its foun­da­tions. Its most rep­re­sen­ta­tive part was the west­ern wing, which housed the so-called din­ing room. The nar­row­er oth­er two wings ac­com­mo­dat­ed rooms of low­er rank. On the foun­da­tion of the east­ern tow­er a new oc­tag­o­nal tow­er was erect­ed, which took o­ver the func­tion of the cas­tle chapel. The man­sion had a wall no more than 1 me­ter thick. The en­trance to the court­yard was sit­u­at­ed in the east­ern wing, next to the tow­er, and led o­ver the moat on a bridge made of oak tim­bers.



PLAN AND VIEW OF THE RUINS: 1. HALLWAY, 2. CHAPEL, 3., 4., 5. CHAMBERS, 6. DINING ROOM,
7. SMALL HALLWAY, 8. TREASURY, 9. SECOND HALLWAY WITH STAIRS


HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING


T

here are vir­tu­al­ly no re­mains of the me­dieval cas­tle. The ru­ins we can see to­day on the hill are relics of a manor house from the late 18th cen­tu­ry, which have lit­tle to do with de­fen­sive ar­chi­tec­ture any­more, al­though part of the walls may date back to the ear­ly 17th cen­tu­ry. The lay­out of all three cas­tle wings and the moat, which clear­ly cuts off the steep hill from its sur­round­ings, is eas­i­ly iden­ti­fi­able. In the first decade of the 21st cen­tu­ry, ar­chae­o­log­i­cal work was car­ried out on the cas­tle grounds. As a re­sult, pre­vi­ous­ly un­known foun­da­tions were un­cov­ered, which may have been a rel­ic of the north­ern gate. A large amount of pot­tery, tiles and frag­ments of ev­ery­day items were al­so found. Then the hill got re­vi­tal­ized and de­vel­oped for tourism. The ug­ly am­phithe­ater lo­cat­ed at the foot of the hill was de­mol­ished and re­placed with a new one, which is ug­ly too.




OLD AND NEW AMPHITHEATER AT THE FOOT OF THE CASTLE HILL


Free admission 24 hours a day.


There is a ban on bringing dogs to the castle hill.


Flying (up to a height of 120 m) near the ruins can be done with­out res­tric­tions.




AT THE CASTLE IN SOCHACZEW



GETTING THERE


T

he castle ruin is located on Ro­mu­al­da Trau­gut­ta and Pod­zam­cze streets, a few hun­dred me­ters south of the Mar­ket Square. It is about 2 km from the rail­way sta­tion.



The most convenient way to park your car is in a small park­ing lot on Pod­zam­cze Street or sim­ply on the street (Pod­zam­cze). In 2021 the park­ing was free.


Bicycles can be left at the parking lot on Pod­zam­cze Street. You can al­so bring them in along the path that goes up the hill (no need to climb the stairs).




BIBLIOGRAPHY


1. M. Brykowska: Ochrona zabytkowych ruin – problemy badawcze i projektowe na przykładzie zamku...
2. J. Gula, R. Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski: Zamek w Sochaczewie. Z otchłani wieków.
3. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
4. P. Lasek: Początki zamków na Mazowszu w świetle nowszych badań
5. Ł. Popowski: Zamek w Sochaczewie
6. A.R. Sypek Zamki i warownie ziemi mazowieckiej
7. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019





Castles nearby:
Brochów - the fortified church from the 14th century, 12 km
Łowicz - relics of the bishop's castle, 28 km
Radziejowice - relics of the fortified manor house from the 15th century, currently a palace, 40 km
Sobota - relics of the castle from the 15th century, currently a neo-Gothic palace, 47 km
Oporów - the Gothic castle from the 15th century, 51 km
Płock - the castle of the mazovian dukes from the 14th century, 57 km




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text: 2022
photographs: 2005, 2019, 2021
© Jacek Bednarek