Lublin Castle is situated in
LublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,462 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, adjacent to the Old Town district and close to the city center. The hill on which it is located was first fortified with a wood-reinforced earthen wall in the 12th century. In the first half of the 13th century the stone
keepA keep is a strong central tower which is used as a dungeon or a fortress. Often, the keep is the most defended area of a castle, and as such may form the main habitation area, or contain important stores such as the armoury, food, and the main water well, which would ensure survival during a...
was built which survives to this day and is the tallest building of the castle, as well as the oldest standing building in the whole city.
Lublin Castle is situated in
LublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,462 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, adjacent to the Old Town district and close to the city center. The hill on which it is located was first fortified with a wood-reinforced earthen wall in the 12th century. In the first half of the 13th century the stone
keepA keep is a strong central tower which is used as a dungeon or a fortress. Often, the keep is the most defended area of a castle, and as such may form the main habitation area, or contain important stores such as the armoury, food, and the main water well, which would ensure survival during a...
was built which survives to this day and is the tallest building of the castle, as well as the oldest standing building in the whole city. In the 14th century, during the reign of Casimir the Great, the castle was rebuilt with stone walls. Probably at the same time the castle's Holy Trinity church was built to serve as a royal chapel. In the first decades of the 15th century king
Władysław IIJogaila, later ' , was Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland. He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle, Kęstutis. In 1386, he converted to Christianity, was baptized as Władysław, married the young Queen Jadwiga of Poland, inducted into the Order of the Dragon and was...
commissioned a set of wall paintings for the chapel, which were completed in 1418 and are preserved to this day. Due to their unique style, mixing Western and Eastern Orthodox influences, they are acclaimed internationally as an important historical monument.
Under the rule of the
Jagiellon dynastyThe Jagiellons were a royal dynasty originating from the Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century...
the castle enjoyed royal favor and frequent stays by members of the royal family. In the 16th century it was rebuilt on a grandiose scale, under the direction of Italian masters brought from
KrakówKraków , in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow and pronounced
, is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland and a popular tourist destination. Its historic centre was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites as the first of its kind...
. The most momentous event in the castle's history was the signing in 1569 of the
Union of LublinThe Union of Lublin replaced the personal union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy, since Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellons, remained childless after three marriages...
, the founding act of the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The new Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th-century Europe....
.
As a consequence of the wars in the 17th century (
The DelugeIn the history of Poland and Lithuania, the Deluge commonly refers to a series of wars in the mid-to-late seventeenth century which left the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins....
) the castle fell into disrepair. Only the oldest sections, the keep and the chapel, remained intact. After Lublin fell under Russian rule following the territorial settlement of the
Congress of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November, 1814 to June, 1815. Its objective was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic...
in 1815, the government of
Congress PolandCongress Poland , officially and formally Kingdom of Poland and informally known as Russian Poland was a constitutional personal union of the Russian Empire created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, replaced by the Central Powers in 1915 with the Kingdom of Poland...
, on the initiative of Stanisław Staszic, carried out a complete reconstruction of the castle between 1826 and 1828 . The new buildings were in English neogothic style, completely different from the structures they replaced, and their new purpose was to house a criminal prison. Only the keep and the chapel were preserved in their original state.
The castle served as a prison for the next 128 years: as a Tsarist prison from 1831 to 1915, in independent Poland from 1918 to 1939, and most infamously during the Nazi occupation of the city from 1939 to 1944, when between 40,000 and 80,000 inmates, many of them
Polish resistancePolish resistance can refer to various resistance movements of the Polish people against foreign invaders, occupiers or puppet governments:- 1569-1795 :*Repnin Sejm*Bar Confederation*Great Sejm*Kościuszko Uprising*Wielkopolska Uprising...
fighters, passed through the prison. Just before withdrawing in 1944, the Nazis massacred its remaining 300 prisoners. After 1944 the castle continued to serve as a prison of Soviet secret police and later Poland's puppet regime controlled by the Soviets, and until 1954 about 35,000 Poles opposing Soviet occupation of their country rule passed through it, of whom 333 lost their lives.
In 1954 the castle prison was finally closed. Following reconstruction and refurbishment, since 1957 it has been the main site of the Lublin Museum.
External links