Pszczyna Castle

The former nobility seat in Pszczyna (Pless in German) in the Upper Silesia was erected in the 11^th or 12^th century and has been reconstructed many times ever since. In the Middle Ages it was a property of, among others, the Dukes of Opole and Racibórz, of Opava, and of Cieszyn. In 1548-1765 it belonged to the Silesian family of Promnitz, in 1765-1847 to the princes of Anhalt-Köthen-Pless, and from 1847 to the princes Hochberg von Pless from Książ. In 1870-1876 the latter rebuilt the castle, which gave it its present architectural shape in the Neo-Baroque style.

Along with the historical English-style landscape garden, covering the area of 156 ha, it forms a park-and-palace complex. In 1946, it turned into a museum which nowadays operates under the name of the Castle Museum in Pszczyna. Unlike many other castles and palaces in the Silesia which were destroyed during World War II and afterwards, the Castle in Pszczyna preserved the original equipment and furniture, which makes it one of the most valuable monuments of residential architecture in Poland today.