Castles to visit Little Poland

The ruins of this castle, the largest and most beautiful in the Cracovian Jura, stand 2 kilometers from Ogrodzieniec, in Podzamcze, on the road to Pilica. Built in the ^14th century on the highest hill in the region, it was remodeled in the ^16th century in Renaissance style. Its purpose was to protect southern Poland from Czech and Tatar attacks. Ransacked and pillaged following the Swedish invasion, it was abandoned in 1810.

At the entrance, on the left, are the former stables. In front of the same gates, a small fragment of the moat remains. The château's courtyard is impressive for its size, its protective wall and the huge white boulders built into the wall. A path leads to the ruins, which you enter through a well-preserved gate. You enter the château via a tower that opens onto the inner courtyard. This leads to the kitchen with its well, the bedrooms and toilets, the refectory... The château also contains basements and a tower from which you can admire the surrounding area. Its construction is perfectly integrated into the natural rock. During the high season, the castle hosts knights' shows every Sunday.

The fortress (2 km from the castle) Built of wood, it lets you imagine what a bastion looked like under the Piasts dynasty. It also offers a fine view of the castle. Not an essential visit, but it does offer another view of ^13th-century defense systems.

The palace was built in the years 1736-1742 and features a lavish French-style park, perfectly preserved baroque interiors and a beautiful rococo façade. The museum also has a fantastic collection of socialist realism paintings and sculptures, with representations of the great figures of world socialism, led by Stalin and Mao Zedong, but also scenes of everyday life under communism. It is an amusing contrast that is played out in the best preserved noble residence in Poland.