The chapter castle of the District of Olsztyn (komornictwo olsztyńskie), property of the chapter of Warmia in Frombork between 1397 and 1772. Situated in the bend of the Łyna River. Currently a seat of Warmia and Mazury Museum.

History

The castle had been in construction since about 1348, even before Olsztyn received the municipal rights. The northern wing was completed at the end of the 14th century, the southern one, with a 30 – metre high tower, in the middle of the 15th century. In the 16th century St. Ann’s Chapel (presently Kormer’s Hall) was arranged in this wing. The baroque wing was constructed between 1756-58. The castle moat was drained in the 19th century, a dike to the castle was built in 1845, using the soil removed from the castle inter –wall area.

Between 1397 and 1772 the castle was a seat of a canon –administrator of chapter properties. The fortress was seized by the Polish forces during the wars with the Teutonic Knights in 1410 and 1414. During the Thirteen Years' War the castle took sides with the Prussian Confederation. Afterwards the canons, deceived by the Teutonic knights, decided to let in mercenary troops, which resulted in expulsion from the castle. Nicolas Copernicus was the administrator in Olsztyn between 1516-19 and 1520-21. He was the one, who organized the defense of the castle in January 1521 during the war with the Order of the Teutonic Knights. After the First Partition of Poland the castle was handed over to the evangelical community. A Prussian minister of preservation of historic monuments Ferdinand von Quast was in charge of the general overhaul and restoring the Gothic shape to the castle between 1865-71. During the rebuilding of the castle between 1909-11 a walkway between the northern and eastern wing was created. It was used as a residence for the president of Regierungsbezirk . In the courtyard a pseudo -Gothic staircase was built and the floor level in representative chambers was lowered by 1.2 m. In 1921 Regional Museum was created inside the castle, the museum presenting ethnographic exhibitions and displays glorifying German victory during the plebiscite on 11 July 1920. After the Word War II the building hosts the Museum of Warmia and Mazury. Since 1974 at the beginning of July in the courtyard Castle Meetings ”Let’s Sing Poetry” take place every year.

 

Architectural description

The castle is a three- wing building with the courtyard closed by a medieval wall from the West. The oldest northern wing has four floors with a two – storeyed basements. On the ground floor there is a library. The most important role was played by the first floor with its gallery. In three chambers there was a dwelling place of a canon -administrator, his refectory and a chapel. The former two are covered with diamond vaults, the chapel has star vaults. On the courtyard wall there is a partly preserved astronomic table by Nicolas Copernicus used for determining the Spring equinox. The table was made by the astronomer himself in 1517. From the inter- wall side you can see a preserved private Gothic latrine of the administrators. Two upper floors were used as warehouses.

The southern, warehouse and defensive wing has five floors. Outside under the roof there are defensive Gothic wooden hoardings. In the eastern part of the wing there is a two – bay chamber, with net vaults, a former St. Ann’s Chapel, erected between 1530-31, consecrated by the bishop Marcin Kromer in the year of 1580. From the west a cylindrical tower on a rectangular basis adjoins the castle wing. The tower was topped with a cone -shaped spire in 1926. On the outer wall of the tower there are two little stone corbels, once supporting a latrine of the guards.

An 18th - century, storeyed, late baroque wing with a high basement was erected in the place of a curtain wall and a gothic gate tower. Only a lower past of the fore gate was preserved. It contains a stone portal, based on a pointed arch, leading to the courtyard, and fragments of blind windows. In the north- east corner of the castle there is a 20th century walkway, which corresponds visually with the baroque wing.

From the Łyna River side there is a preserved outer wall with a semicircular half- shell tower, the remnants of a corner rectangular towers and a rectangular guardhouse, next to a stone bridge over the Łyna River. From the city side, in the moat- a cylindrical tower. From the South, the inter –wall area is closed with a, so called, salt warehouse, a 17th- century building for the castle crew, transformed into a salt warehouse in the 19th- century. The dike leading to the city divides the moat into two parts, in one of them there is an open air theatre of Czesław Niemen situated. Entering the dike from the city side you pass a monument called Copernicus’ Bench by Urszula Szmyt (2003). In the yard there are three Prussian statues – so called ”Prussian Crones”, and a Versailles border stone from 1919 from the Polish – German border and a well. In the inter – wall area, near the tower, there is a stone sculpture entitled ‘Solar System’ created in 1973 by a Belgian artist Jean-Marie Bechet.

 

Interesting facts

The astronomical table in the castle of Olsztyn is the only astronomical tool preserved in the world, made and used by Nicolas Copernicus. Red paint for Copernicus’ graphs was brought from Italy, black lines were added after Copernicus’ death, while trying to transform the table into a sundial. The table is partly damaged because of numerous alternations to the gallery structure throughout the centuries. Copernicus’ research was used in 1582 during a calendar reform of the Pope Gregory XIII – introduction of the Gregorian calendar.

In the northern wing there are original Gothic ceiling beams from 1370 and 1373. The ceiling beams and hoardings of the southern wing were made using trees cut down between 1425 and 1429. A defensive potential of the hoardings has never been put to trial, presently common mergansers hatch there.

In June 2006 a gale destroyed a 120-year-old lime tree, growing at the courtyard, which used to a symbol of annual meetings “Let’s Sing Poetry”.

 

Practical info

  • opening hours for the museum: 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. (after the touristic season: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.), from May to September – admission to the tower.
  • admission 9/7 PLN, courtyard + tower 3 PLN
  • free parking lot for coaches – 100 m. away (Nowowiejskiego Street)
  • free toilet in the museum
  • cafe and a souvenir shop at the courtyard
  • sightseeing time - around 60 min. + tower 15 min

 

 

Bibliography

www.muzeum.olsztyn.pl