Besiekiery Castle

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Besiekiery Castle is a brick castle in the Polish village of Besiekiery. It was built at the end of the 1400s by Lawrence Sokołowski, the governor of Łęczyca, and it had a tower and a moat, with remnants still visible. In 1597 Cardinal Andrzej Batory rebuilt the castle. After floods caused by the Swedes, Jan Szczawiński repaired it in 1655; his Prawdzic coat of arms is on a cartouche there. In the 18th century the Gajewski family owned the castle and lowered the main building by one floor. The castle has a rectangular brick plan with a drawbridge to the south gate tower. After 1800 it was abandoned and slowly fell into ruin, though large parts remain. Entrance to the ruins is free, and they are easy to spot from the road; to visit you must cross the moat and climb a hill. The early history is unclear: some say it was built around 1500 by Mikołaj Sokołowski, governor of Łęczyca, while others think Wojciech Sokołowski built it. It belonged to Andrzej Batory in the late 16th century and then changed owners many times. The castle deteriorated in the 17th century and a fire in 1731 ended its active use. By the mid-19th century it was used mainly for economic purposes.