Lublin Castle

What makes it special

In the chapel, look for the foundation inscription, which dates the finished painting to 1418 and names its painter, master Andrzej. The chapel ranks among the most valuable medieval monuments in Poland and in Europe.

The keep beside it is the oldest building on the hill, a defensive tower that was also lived in. Look at its brickwork, the shape of its windows, its carved masks and its old graffiti, all marks of its Romanesque age. Inside, the stair climbs through walls up to 3.5 metres thick.

On the first floor, find the five bricks scratched with inscriptions by prisoners once held in the tower. They are easy to walk past.

The castle front you see from the town is not medieval: it went up in the 1820s as a neo-Gothic prison built around the chapel and the keep.

Visiting

Three parts of the castle are ticketed: the permanent galleries, the chapel and the keep. You can buy them online, at the museum ticket office or at the machine in the Castle Courtyard, but the combined castle ticket covering all three is sold only at the ticket office.

Chapel tickets are for a set hour, on the hour, because only 60 visitors an hour are let in to protect the paintings. Buy that slot first and fit the galleries and the keep around it.

The keep holds an exhibition on the castle's long life as a prison. Its stair ends on a rooftop terrace.

Guided or on your own

Qualified museum staff and guides licensed by the museum's director lead tours of the permanent galleries, the chapel and the keep. A guided round of the galleries runs up to an hour and a half.

Tips

If you are travelling as a group of more than 10, booking chapel tickets in advance is compulsory. Photographs of the galleries, the chapel and the exhibits are for your own use only, with no right to publish them.

The keep can be closed in bad weather, so if the sky is turning, climb it before your chapel hour rather than after.