Chojnów

State of preservation:		A complete building
Admission:		A paid entrance – a museum
Parking:		The parking lot by the museum is free
Searching difficulty:		What has remained of the castle stands in the town center and is well visible
Access difficulty:		The parking lot is situated by the very museum so you do not have to walk your legs off
Subjective rating:		An ugly building

Driving directions:

Chojnów is one of the bigger towns of the Lower Silesia, so there should not be any problems with its finding. After entering the town you need to head for the center. There, near the market square, is Plac Zamkowy, by which at number 3 there may be found a sought building.


Historical outline:

Former name: Haynau

Due to limited knowledge on the castle in Chojnów, till recently it was thought to have arisen in the first half of the XVIth cent. In the light of the newest research it turned out however that the castle was the most probably built at the end of the XIIIth cent. by the duke Henryk V Gruby, while its written references originate from 1329 and 1331. In 1428 the castle was seized and burned by the Hussites. In 1508 the castle was consumed by the next fire, and 2 years later one of the castle towers collapsed. Demolished building was rebuilt in the years of 1546-1547 by the duke Fryderyk III. In the subsequent centuries the castle was repeatedly reconstructed after next fires.
The castle was abandoned many times (e.g. in the time of Thirty Years’ War and after dying out of the Piast family of Legnica-Brzesko) and also frequently changed its functions. In 1708 on its ground floor the chapel and the apartment for clergyman were arranged, after the fire of the town in 1762 and 1767 was partially disassembled and material was allocated to the reconstruction of fire victims’ houses, then in 1813 the building became the field hospital for French armies, and in 1832 the field hospital for the town threatened by the epidemics of cholera. At the turn of the XIXth and XXth century the building was utilized as an educational institution, latter of municipal authorities and court. Ultimately since 1959 it houses Muzeum Regionalne.
The building, which has survived till today, is solely a small part of the palace into which the castle has converted itself as a result of rebuildings.


Pictures:




Nearest castles:

Jędrzychów

Chocianów

Lubin

Chocianowiec

Modła

Warta Bolesławiecka

Legnica

Grodziec (Lower Silesia Province)

Skała

Warmątowice Sienkiewiczowskie