Lublin Castle, Poland (part 1 of 2)
The origins of Lublin Castle date back to the 12th century, when a wooden and earthen castellan stronghold, the seat of a land official, stood on a hill. In the mid-13th century, a brick keep was built as a defensive structure, a Romanesque-style residential and defensive tower, which remains one of the most valuable medieval structures in Poland to this day.
In the 14th century, during the reign of Casimir the Great, the wooden fortifications were replaced by a brick castle with defensive walls, a western gate, a Gothic palace, a Jewish tower, and the Holy Trinity Chapel, whose polychromes from 1418 in the Ruthenian-Byzantine style are considered among the most valuable monuments of their kind in the country.
The turning point came with the siege of Lublin by the Tatars in 1341, after which the castle was expanded. In the 16th century, Sigismund the Old began a Renaissance reconstruction of the castle, giving it a monumental character, including strengthening the gate and adding attics.
In 1569, the Union of Lublin – the first real union in Europe – between Poland and Lithuania was sworn in within the castle walls.
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