The castle in Chęciny as seen from a lower town square and Władysław Łokietek street. At the foot of Castle Mountains there is a silhouette of the Saint Bartholemew church and above three towers as well as windows from a place where Great House once was.
This view attracts attention of drivers and passengers travelling the ring road around Kielce to Cracow or Warsaw . It is a certainly a dominant over the landscape and a reminder how important a royal town Chęciny once was.
The fortress was built on a verge of XIIIth and XIVth century during time of polish feudal division and a long process of unification of the country by a future king Władysław Łokietek.
Before we enter a castle’s gate we observe a path of wooden statues showing people crucial to Checiny’s history. Tour guides usually stop by each sculpture sharing tales about times long gone.
Inside walls we visit a treasury recreated in the memory of events from Polish-Teutonic Order wars. It was back then that the castle, due its good defensive position inside the country, was used as a safe haven for gold an jewellery threatened by the enemy.
Additionally for the same reason it was turned to a place of confinement for important prisoners of states. The captured Teutonic knights, a cowardly castellan and a polish knight accused of an affair with the queen.
Great house was a place where notable people stayed, wives and sisters of kings, princes. But the most known resident was Bona Sforza d’Aragona – a wife and mother of kings from the Jagiellonian dynasty. The rumour has it she still can be seen in the castle, however in a somehow different shape and form.
From the top of a tower there is a beautiful 360 degree view of the Holy Cross province. We could see many mountains ranges, landmark sites and the city of Kielce. When certain conditions are met, which happens usually few times a year, there is a distant skyline in south of the Poland’s highest mountains – Tatry.
Beneath the castle sits the old town of Chęciny, once a glorious royal industrial centre where clerks, masons, merchants and craftsmen lived. The visible signs of a past glory are churches, a renesainsce house and a synagogue.
The Chęciny Castle is open for visitors seven days a week all year. There are many attractions here that can take us back in time thanks to a fine crew taking care of the castle and its guests.