Tykocin Castle

Tykocin Castle stands on the right bank of the Narew, on the northern edge of the town. It is a place with a long and turbulent history: once a stronghold of the Gasztołd family, under Sigismund Augustus one of the most important depots for weapons and the state treasury, later owned by Stefan Czarniecki and the Branicki family, and finally a ruin stripped almost to its foundations. The present-day building was erected at the beginning of the 21st century on the initiative of a private investor and draws on the former stronghold, though it is not a faithful replica – mainly the remains of the foundations and ground floor have survived from the original.

The Castle of the Gasztołds

The first reliable records of the Tykocin stronghold date from the 15th century. On 13 February 1433, the stronghold in Tykocin was granted to Jan Gasztołd, and the Lithuanian Gasztołd family ruled it for over a hundred years. The first castle was most likely made of wood. Around 1519, whilst it belonged to Olbracht Gasztołd, it was burnt down during a raid by the forces of the governor Mikołaj Radziwiłł – this was an episode in the fierce rivalry between the two powerful families. When Stanisław Gasztołd, the last of the family, died in 1542, the Tykociny estate passed to the king.

The Arsenal and Treasury of Sigismund Augustus

Zygmunt August decided to build a new, stone castle in Tykocin. From the mid-16th century, the construction was overseen by Hiob Bretfus, the royal architect and fortification engineer. In 1569, the ‘cekhauz’, or armoury building, was completed. Tykocin was not a typical residence – it served primarily as a military base and storehouse. Cannons, part of the treasury and the royal library brought from Vilnius were stored here. Stefan Batory established the Crown Arsenal in Tykocin, which, according to accounts, contained around 500 cannons, and in 1601, heavy demolition cannons were brought here from Kraków.

The Renaissance castle had a trapezium-like layout, with a courtyard in the centre and four cylindrical towers at the corners. The interiors were richly decorated. About 15 metres from the castle ran an outer brick wall with four horseshoe-shaped bastions, and the whole complex was surrounded by a moat.

The bastion fortress and the Swedish Deluge

Between 1611 and 1632, during the reign of Sigismund III Vasa, the castle was fitted with more modern defences. The moat was filled in and the old wall with its bastions was demolished. The castle was surrounded by four earthen bastions connected by curtain walls, and the fortifications covered an area of over 6 hectares.

During the Deluge, the castle was occupied by Bogusław Radziwiłł, an ally of the Swedes. On 31 December 1655, the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Janusz Radziwiłł, died here. From April to July 1656, the fortress was besieged by the nobility under the command of Samuel Oskierka, but Radziwiłł forced the besiegers to withdraw. Another siege began in November 1656. On 27 January 1657, the castle was captured by troops loyal to Jan Kazimierz, whilst the Swedish colonel Erskein blew up part of the walls at that time. Shortly afterwards, the fortress was occupied for several months by Brandenburg-Prussian troops, who surrendered it in the summer of 1657.

The Czarniecki and Branicki families

In 1659, Jan Kazimierz granted the Tykocin starosty to Stefan Czarniecki, and in 1661 the castle became his property. Following the victory at Połonka in 1660, Czarniecki sent the captured cannons and prisoners to Tykocin. Through his daughter’s marriage, the estate subsequently passed to the Branicki family. During the Northern War, the castle was occupied by the Swedes. In 1705, Augustus II and Tsar Peter I met in Tykocin – it was then that the Order of the White Eagle was established.

Decline and demolition

In 1734, the Mazovian Confederates, supporters of Stanisław Leszczyński, set fire to the castle, and from that time onwards it fell into ruin. From 1750, on the orders of Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki, the walls were dismantled. The locals used the material for their own building projects, whilst bricks from the castle were used, amongst other places, in the Bernardine monastery complex. In 1771, the remains were destroyed by a flood. After 1915, German soldiers used the last fragments of the walls to build a road to Knyszyn.

Research and restoration

The first systematic archaeological investigations were carried out between 1961 and 1964. These enabled the original layout of the castle to be established, and sections of the ground-floor walls were partially reconstructed. A turning point came when the site was purchased by Jacek Nazarko, a businessman from Białystok. Between 2001 and 2005, excavations were led by Magdalena and Wojciech Bis from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the foundation stone was laid in 2002. The design was prepared by architect Agnieszka Duda from Białystok. The design was based on documentation found in an archive in St Petersburg, according to which the presumed form of the western residential wing was reconstructed. The current building is in the historicist style, and some of the interiors are loose interpretations rather than faithful reconstructions.

The castle today

Today, the castle is a privately-owned building that combines the functions of a museum, a restaurant and a hotel. The Centre for Historical Education, based there, organises guided tours. The tour includes the underground passages, featuring an exhibition on the castle’s history set against the backdrop of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Glass Hall with its reconstructed magnificent tiled stove. At the end of the tour, visitors climb the prison tower, which now serves as a viewing point overlooking the Narew Valley and the storks nesting at the castle. The restaurant serves traditional Polish and regional cuisine, with Lithuanian, Tatar and Jewish influences. It is also possible to stay overnight at the castle. Since 2012, a winter historical re-enactment entitled „The Storming of the Castle” has been held here, and in autumn – „Goose Feast on St Martin’s Day”.