Biuro Dokumentacji Zabytków w Szczecinie - MORYŃ - Castle ruins

History

The construction of the gord (the 9^th – 12th century) on the lake island (which was later connected to the mainland) is associated with West-Slavic Pomeranian tribes. An upland gord with a regular circular outline was built here. In the 12th and the 1st half of the 13th century, it was located at the frontier of Pomerania and Greater Poland and belonged to the defence system of the Cedynia castellania, ruled by the Pomeranian dukes of the Griffin dynasty.

In the second half of the 13th century the Brandenburg margraves took over the southern borderlands of the duchy. To emphasise their rule, around 1365, margrave Otto V of the Wittelsbach dynasty ordered to build the Stolzenburg castle on the site of the gord. According to researchers, it served as a staging camp for the troops of the March. Knights from the houses of Mörner, Plötz, Gustiebiese and Elsholtz resided here. Along with the titles of burgrave, they received numerous estates and villages in the vicinity of Moryń.

At the end of the 14th century, the castle was destroyed and King Louis the Hungarian (the then margrave of Brandenburg) gave it as a private property to the knight Nicholas von Sack of Przyjezierze. It was still in use in the 15th century, however, it was never rebuilt into its original shape. It has survived to the present day in the form of a ruin. In 1920, the castle hill was purchased by the town of Moryń, secured, restored and made available to the public.

After 1945, the peninsula area was gradually developed into a tourist and leisure centre. Archaeological research was also carried out, recording early medieval settlements. Currently, the site is open to the public as the Centrum Konferencyjno-Wypoczynkowe Szafir ('Sapphire Conference and Leisure Centre') by Lake Morzycko in Moryń. At the foot of the castle hill, contemporary holiday centre and restaurant buildings are located.

Description

The remains of the castle are situated on the flat-topped hill, where the former gord, surrounded by a rampart with an internal dry moat, up to 10 m wide, had been built. The castle grounds have a roughly circular shape with a diameter of approximately 50 m. They are demarcated by a circle of low walls with an entrance gate on the western side. Right next to it there are remnants of the main residential and defensive building of a rectangular outline. At the other (eastern) side of the walls, the foundations of another, smaller house, also on a rectangular plan, are evident. The residential buildings, as well as the fortifications, were built of granite fieldstones, as indicated by the preserved fragments laid in regular layers at the front. The inner courtyard was not built up. There was probably a public well in the middle and wooden utility buildings were located by the walls.

Nowadays, the venue is used for historical events and reenactments and is enriched with educational and exhibition facilities. The remains of the building have been restored and exposed so that visitors can learn about the medieval technique of erecting walls of erratic stones (dressed on the front, inside filled with grouted rubble).