The knightly castle in Bydlin

Because of the inaccessibility of sources of information, the origins of the small watchtower in Bydlin are getting lost in the darkness of history., That’s why it is very difficult to tell exactly who built it and when it was built. There is even an opinion, that this building was never actually a castle and from beginning to end it mostly fulfilled religious functions. The castle in Bydlin was first mentioned in documents from 1398 – at that time it was an important part of the defensive system at the Polish-Silesian border. It was owned by Pełka and Niemierza, the nephews of Niemierza from the Śmiara family, who is often credited to the foundation of the brick-made building. According to some researchers, the fortification was owned for a certain time by one of the illegitimate sons of Kazimierz the Great and a woman named Cudka. The names of thosev men were Jan, Niemierza and Pełka, and the convergence of the names suggests that the already mentioned brothers might have been the sons of Kazimierz. Between 1398 and 1400, two brothers from Łapanów named Klemens and Zbigniew made claims to the castle, along with Klemens from Lubcza, a canon from Kraków.

The original defensive building consisted of a high building on a set of a rectangle with the sides of 11×24 meters, constructed from local limestone. It most likely had three storeys with two rooms on each floor, with an entrance located at the height 2,5 meters above the surface level. Apart from windows, the wall also has shooting holes.