Tour Overview
Before you even enter Czocha Castle, you may want to stop at the arcade bridge led over the moat just to look at it. The quadrilateral outlay of the castle, as heavily fortified and additionally protected from the top of a circular tower, is something that we tend to see in historical motion pictures, not in real life – well, not in this case! Visit Czocha Castle for its richly decorated residential chambers, gourmet events held in its cellars and fascinating stories related to the functions it would serve in the past.
In order to visit
Czocha Castle, you need to travel to the accordingly named village in Luban County, located about 171 km of road route westwards to
Wroclaw, western Poland. Erected on the bank of Kwisa river, Czocha Castle occupies the top of a hill – and the locating at this altitude makes it
a landmark of the region. You need to devote a half of a day to explore the castle and its vicinity, with the journey time counted in - the sightseeing of the stronghold itself should not take you more than 1,5 hour.
Czocha castle was erected on
the Czech-Lusatian border (and we need to remember that Silesia would be subject to many territorial changes in the past)
between 1241 and 1247 by an order of
king Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. Throughout the centuries to come, it would be passed from hands to hands – by means of purchases or as an inheritance – between the royalty, high clergy representatives and
such influential families as von Nostitzs or Gutschows. It would be
captured during the Hussite wars,
besieged by the Swedes in the course of
the Thirty Years' War and barely survived a fire in 1793, only to be reconstructed by its first 20th-century owner. Even though Czocha Castle weathered WWII with no other damage inflicted, it was subject to looting as the armed conflict reached Lower Silesia. This is when a lot of its
precious art collections (like 100 icons, masterpieces of porcelain,
the coronation insignia of the Romanov family) or books housed in its
Tudor-styled library disappeared from the place. The castle would later be where
Greek refugees were accommodated and, after the change of European borders in 1945, it used to serve as a military holiday house for the Polish army, being erased from maps to hide its location. Meanwhile, before being passed into private hands and partly turned into a commercial hotel after the collapse of communism, Czocha castle would gain certain fame as a pleasant location for filmmakers.
Nowadays, as you visit Czocha castle, you may expect its residential part open to the public,
Knight Rooms and
armouries with a variety of exhibits to sightsee, as well as
knight tournaments,
archery courses,
medieval to
Renaissance dances organised in the courtyard or wine tasting held in its cellars. A nice restaurant adjoined to the castle will serve you well after the trip you have taken to reach Czocha. While visiting, you will surely hear
the legend of a Renaissance "well of unfaithful wives" placed at the castle - apparently, it was where the "cheating" duchesses would finish their lives according to the custom once present there. Additionally, you may expect a bunch of information on
a number of mysterious devices or
hidden rooms of the castle, as well as side-stories provided to you by the well-informed staff of the castle.
Interested in visiting majestic Czocha Castle, the setting of "the College of Wizardry" game that has recently popularised the knowledge of this place anew? Contact us for assistance in organising your trip there!
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