Top 6 Castles around Cieszyn

Fryštát Castle in Karviná is a beautiful classicist chateau located in the Czech region of Moravia-Silesia. It once belonged to the aristocratic Larisch-Mönni family and is one of the few well-preserved residences in this mining region. The interior of the chateau features richly decorated halls with original furniture and art collections, and visitors can feel the atmosphere of the old aristocracy. The chateau is surrounded by a picturesque English park, which is a great place to walk or relax. Cyclists can take advantage of the well-developed network of cycle routes in the area, connecting Karviná with other attractions in the region.

I recommend stopping here, at least for a moment.

In the 13th century, a fortified courtyard stood on the site of the castle building. Part of it was the former signal tower, which is still preserved today - part of the Gothic fortifications.

The Piast Tower was built in the first half of the 14th century, it was part of the upper castle and as one of the four towers it was an important element of the defense system of the Cieszyn castle during the Piast times. The tower was raised in the second half of the 14th century and decorated with corner coats of arms with the Piast eagle. At the end of the 15th century, it was added another storey with hoarding and battlements made of brick, and the whole thing was covered with a high tented roof. The tower is almost 30 meters high and 120 steps lead to its top. The tower is composed of four main parts. The underground part, about 6 meters deep, used to be a dungeon. The lower part is 9 meters wide and 10 meters high. This part of the tower housed utility rooms. The central part had residential functions and was 15 meters high and 8.5 meters wide. The highest storey, 4 meters high, had a defense function. In the Middle Ages, the top of the tower was covered with a roof, under which there was an omnidirectional defensive porch. The corners of the upper part were equipped with bay windows in the form of round turrets. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wie%C5%BCa_Piastowska_w_Cieszynie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKalYVHhhs

The tower was erected in the second half of the 13th century and was one of the important defenses of the upper castle. It was built of stone in the form of a cylinder, the diameter of which was 12 meters, the walls were 4.2 meters thick and about 24 meters high. The highest part of the tower was topped with a girdle and a wooden conical roof. The usable area of the interior was only about 3.6 m. There was a prison in the lower floor of the tower, and above there were living quarters and guard rooms. In the 14th century, during the expansion of the castle, the tower was incorporated into the walls, becoming one of the corner towers. Later it fell into disrepair and was covered with a stone and earth embankment. In 1914, artificial ruins were erected on the embankment, thus creating a romantic spot in the park. In the years 2001-2002, during the archaeological works carried out in the park, the remains of the tower were uncovered, and then its original appearance was restored. The ruins of the castle kitchen from the 16th century are visible next to the tower. http://www.polskaniezwykla.pl/web/place/46977,cieszyn-wieza-ostatecznej-obrony.html https://www.archiwum.cieszyn.pl/?p=categoriesShow&iCategory=354

The origins of the facility date back to the Middle Ages and the beginnings of Frysztat as an independent city. From the fourteenth century, there was a wooden, gothic castle here, built by the Cieszyn Piasts, for whom it was the second, after Cieszyn, family seat. The castle served primarily as a stronghold on the border of Silesia and Moravia, guarding trade routes to Poland. When it burned down in a fire in 1511, Duke Kazimierz II rebuilt it in the early Renaissance style from stone and brick. At that time, it was the second residence of the Piast princes of Cieszyn, who granted the city numerous privileges. Despite this, they quickly left Frysztat, because in 1570 they moved to a new residence - the Raj Palace. In 1572, the so-called The Frisian state was bought from the Piasts by the Gypsies (Czech Cikán) from Słupsk. From that moment on, the events related to subsequent noble families began. The Gypsies owned the castle until 1637 - after the Thirty Years' War, as followers of Lutheranism, they had to flee Silesia. Earlier, in 1617, the castle was damaged by a fire, and later by the troops moving through Frysztat. It was bought by a Catholic nobleman Zdeněk Žampach from Potštejn, but sold it two years later. Then it was briefly ruled by Henryk Wacław Podiebradowicz (Czech Jindřich Václav of Minstrberk; a descendant of King George of Podiebrady), but the building continued to deteriorate. In 1650, the subsequent owners were the counts Gaschin (Czech Gašínové) from Gašín, who made it their family seat. They also made renovations and small reconstructions in the baroque style. In the years 1738-1749 the castle changed owners four times. The new ones who stayed longer were the counts of Taaffe, but the castle fell into decline again, as it was partially destroyed by another fire. In 1792 Frysztat and the castle were bought by Count Jan Larisch von Mönnich and completely rebuilt in the Empire style. He also added a new wing (the so-called Lottyhaus) and thus a U-shaped town palace was created, forming one of the frontages of the market square. In 1804, they established a large English-style park behind the castle. At the nearby Catholic Church of the Exaltation of St. Cross, the Larisch family also built an ancestral tomb; besides it, there are laundries and baths in the vicinity of the palace, and a Swiss-style summer house by a nearby stream. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the rank of the Larisch family (one of them, Jan, became, among others, the Austrian Minister of Finance), began to look for a larger seat. In 1873 they built a neo-Renaissance palace in Solca, and since then the palace in Frysztat fulfilled only mainly economic functions, although Georg Larisch also lived there for some time, the husband of Maria Larisch, niece of Empress Elizabeth, also lived there for some time. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, he was visited by several distinguished guests - incl. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I Koburg. At that time, the Larisch family were among the main owners of the mining industry (coal mines) in the Duchy of Cieszyn. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pa%C5%82ac_we_Frysztacie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJxJcufPkh4

Pub Na bečkách and Karvinský pivovar

The origins of the facility date back to the Middle Ages and the beginnings of Frysztat as an independent city. From the fourteenth century, there was a wooden, gothic castle here, built by the Cieszyn Piasts, for whom it was the second, after Cieszyn, family seat. The castle served primarily as a stronghold on the border of Silesia and Moravia, guarding trade routes to Poland. When it burned down in a fire in 1511, Duke Kazimierz II rebuilt it in the early Renaissance style from stone and brick. At that time, it was the second, after Cieszyn, residence of the Cieszyn Piast princes, who granted the city numerous privileges. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pa%C5%82ac_we_Frysztacie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXc_IUHJelg