Chlewiska Castle

Zamek w Chlewiskach stands in the municipality of Chlewiska, Poland, and its first buildings were erected by members of the medieval Polish Odrowąż family.

The estate entered the Odrowąż sphere when Prędota Stary Odrowąż received Chlewiska by grant from Duke Bolesław Krzywousty in 1098. Soon after, the family established a local church in 1121 and a knight’s court in 1135; the earliest fabric that lies beneath the present park and palace complex dates to this period. During the 13th century the estate is associated in local tradition with a visit by Saint Jacek Odrowąż, who is remembered as a patron linked to the place.

Through the later Middle Ages the property remained in the Odrowąż and Chlewicki line. Named members appear in records in 1360 and again in the late 15th century. Contemporary records attribute a stone-walled fortification in the 15th century to the owners Dobiesław and Strasz Chlewicki. A masonry castle stood by that time and the surviving courtyard well was constructed between about 1460–1490.

The stronghold was rebuilt and remodelled in the early modern period. In 1605 Wawrzyniec Odrowąż Chlewicki carried out a renovation recorded on a commemorative plaque fixed to the building, and an epitaph for Wawrzyniec dated 1613 survives in the ensemble. In the 18th century owners Józef and Aleksander Podkański transformed the older castle fabric into the palace that largely shaped the present appearance.

Ownership passed into new hands in the 19th century. Stanisław Sołtyk purchased the estate in 1801; it passed to his son Roman Sołtyk, a general who served under Napoleon, and the property was confiscated by the Russian government in 1831 because of Roman Sołtyk’s participation in the November Uprising. Marceli Sołtyk is recorded as owner in 1867, and stables were added in 1886. In 1895 Ludwik Broel-Plater acquired the estate, and it later belonged to his son Konstanty Broel-Plater.

Trial archaeological investigations were carried out in 1973. Since 1999 the complex has been owned by a private company operating the manor, and on 12 May 2009 the surrounding historic park, with its palace ponds and protected veteran trees, was entered on a preferential list administered by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. On 25 December 2012 a fire damaged part of the palace attic while the building was operating as a hotel; subsequent renovation works changed the palace back into luxury hotel accommodation. A historic tower that had functioned as a viewing point and a shooting platform for the former game reserve was reconstructed in 2013.