The tower’s history
Located in the Bóbr Valley Landscape Park, the ducal residential tower in Siedlęcin is one of the most magnificent and best-preserved structures of this type in Central Europe.
It was built by Henryk I, the Duke of Jawor, in the years 1313-1315. It originally had five stories (including the basement) and was surrounded by defensive walls with a small gate tower and a moat. The tower was crowned with battlements, traces of which are still visible on the top floor to this day. After the fire in 1575, this battlement was rebuilt (creating an attic floor), and the tower was covered with the four-sided roof that still exists today. Approximately at the same time, Renaissance windows were added, and new latrine chutes were installed. In the 18th century, the tower was transformed into a granary.
Attractions of the building
Undoubtedly, the greatest attraction of the Siedlęcin tower are the medieval paintings on the walls of the so-called Great Hall. These are the oldest secular wall paintings in Poland. The Siedlęcin polychromes are the only medieval paintings in Europe illustrating the story of the most important of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot of the Lake, and his romance with Queen Guinevere. It is enriched by several scenes with a religious-moralizing character. In 2006, a conservation of the paintings was carried out, during which 20th-century overpaintings were removed. In recent years, it has become one of the main attractions on the Kaczawski Route of Medieval Polychromes.
In the Siedlęcin tower, the oldest wooden ceilings in Poland, dating back to the construction of the building in 1313, 1314, and 1315, also deserve attention.
Visiting, workshops and the current state of the tower in Siedlęcin
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, a manor house was built to the south of the tower in its current form (the manor house’s structure contains remnants of several earlier buildings, including a freestanding Renaissance kitchen), and part of the moat was filled in. In the years 2017-2019, the original wooden shingle roof covering of the building was reconstructed, and dormer windows were restored (known from archival photographs). In 2020, the electrical installation was replaced, and new lighting was introduced.
The tower in Siedlęcin is open for visitors every day, and various workshops, culinary events, concerts, and other activities are organized there. In the vicinity of the tower and manor house, medieval festivals and knight tournaments take place. Inside the tower, there is a permanent archaeological exhibition as well as temporary exhibitions of local artists and craftsmen.
