What important Role did Lubovna Castle have in Poland?

[kaima]

m.mojevideo.sk/3m5y






goo.gl/maps/o6KtjZ9zS422

[Jaga]

Kai, the links do not work properly

[pieter]

Kai,

Stará Ľubovňa (German: Altlublau; Hungarian: Ólubló; Latin: Lublovia; Polish: Lubowla) is a town with approximately 16,000 inhabitants in northeastern Slovakia. The town consists of the districts Podsadek and Stará Ľubovňa.



In 1292 Stará Ľubovňa is first mentioned as Libenow. Until it became a free royal town in 1364 the town fell under the jurisdiction of the castle.

In 1412 it belonged to the 16 Spiš towns given by the Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxemburg as a deposit to King Władysław II of Poland. The pledge was part of the Treaty of Lubowla and was thought to be only for a short time, but it finally lasted for 360 years. Only in the course of the first Partition of Poland in 1772 during the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria the territory came back to the Kingdom of Hungary. The pledge was actually an advantage for the towns concerned because they did not have to submit themselves to the comitatus or nobility and had a neutral position in turmoils between Poland and Hungary.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

History of the Stará Ľubovňa castle

Slovak Heritage Live



Castle Stará Ľubovňa together with castles Plaveč and Nedeca on the eastern side and Orava castle on the western side of the High Tatra mountains belongs to a complex of fortresses, that once protected the borders of former Hungary with Poland.

The castle was developed from a former border fortress. It lies on a high mount above a former important trade route from east to west and southwest to Austria and Italy. It also controlled the additional route leading north to Poland through ancient border crossing at Mnisek under Poprad. Copper and silver ore from Slovak mines was shipped through this route to Baltic sea ports and many other goods among them famous Hungarian wine was shipped on the rafts down the rivers Poprad, Dunajec and Vistula to Warsaw and to the Baltic sea ports.

There is no written evidence on the founding of the castle. First written document mentioning the castle is from 1311, but the castle existed most probably earlier. It had been founded perhaps in the last decade of the 13th Century. The castle belonged originally to the King but soon it became a feud of the top aristocratic families Aba and Drugeth. The latter had returned it after 1330 to the King.



In 1396, King Zigmund of Luxembourg had lived there for a long time. In 1412, negotiations between the Hungarian King and Roman Emperor Zigmund and the Polish King Vladislav II Jagellon were held here, concerning the fight against the crusaders and the Turks as well. In the same year, the castle with the adjacent villages and towns, and with further 13 Spis towns fell under a special international status, since King Zigmund for the borrowed money had pledged the castle to the Polish King. The contract originally intended as temporary measure, lasted 360 years until 1772. Though the castle remained Hungarian possession, it was actually ruled by the Polish King through the captains-mayors who belonged to the high Polish aristocracy, who not only maintained it, but also forced the adjacent towns and villages to pay the taxes and tenths from the castle's feuds.



In 1470, captain Preslav of Dimogice began reconstructing the castle. Under the rule of his successor Peter Kmith, King Jan Albrecht visited the castle in 1494 with his royal group . In the first half of the 16th Century the castle was architecturally completed and modernized. Further 3 towers were erected below the castle. Before the completion of the reconstruction in 1553, the castle had burned down to the ground. Then, under the sponsorship of excellent architects active in the Krakow court - Jan Frankenstein and Anton Italicus, they began with the castle's construction and extension. The works performed during 1554-1557 virtually gave the castle the today's shape and size. It is built as a Renaissance palace and fortress. At that time also new water main was built to the castle.



In 1587, the castle was occupied for two years by Austrian army. About 1593, the castle became a feud of Lubomirsky family, important Polish politicians and army commanders. The castle remained in their possession until 1745. At the beginning of the 17th Century, Sebastian Lubomirsky reconstructed the castle. In 1642-1647, his son Stanislav Lubomirsky had constructed the new palace nearby, the Gun Bastion, the chapel and the entrance gate. In 1655-1661, the Polish coronation treasury was hidden here from the Swedish army.

Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski



Prince Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616–1667) was a Polish noble (szlachcic), magnate, outstanding politician and military commander. Lubomirski was a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire SRI. He was the initiator of the Lubomirski Rebellion.

Son of voivode and starost Stanisław Lubomirski and Princess Zofia Ostrogska. He was married to Konstancja Ligęza since 1641 and Barbara Tarło since 1654. He was starost of Kraków since 1647, Court Marshal of the Crown in the same year, Grand Marshal of the Crown since 1650, Field Crown Hetman since 1658, starost of Nowy Sącz and Spisz.

He became Sejm Marshal of the ordinary Sejm between 1 February and 29 March 1643 in Warsaw.

Lubomirski's Rebellion

Lubomirski's Rebellion or Lubomirski's Rokosz (Polish: rokosz Lubomirskiego), was a rebellion against Polish King John II Casimir, initiated by the Polish nobleman, Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski.

In 1665-66, Lubomirski's supporters paralyzed the proceedings of the Sejm. Lubomirski himself, with the support of part of the army and the levée en masse (pospolite ruszenie), defeated royal forces, at the Battle of Matwy (1666). The rebellion ended with the Agreement of Łęgonice, which forced the King to give up his planned reforms and the introduction of vivente-rege royal elections. Lubomirski himself, now a broken man, died soon after.



After the death of Theodor Lubomirsky in 1745, the castle went back under the Polish Crown - to the hand of Queen Maria Jozefa. At that time several houses and economic buildings into which the castle's inhabitants began moving gradually, were built below the castle. In 1757, the castle went to the hands of the Saxon nobleman Heinrich von Bruel.


Prince Teodor Lubomirski (1683–1745) was owner of Lańcut, Ujazdów and Połonne. Voivode of Kraków Voivodeship and starost of Spisz.


Heinrich, count von Brühl (Polish: Henryk Brühl, 13 August 1700 – 28 October 1763), was a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the powerful German von Brühl family. The incumbency of this ambitious politician coincided with the decline of both states. Brühl was a skillful diplomat and cunning strategist, who managed to attain control over of Saxony and Poland, partly by controlling its king, Augustus III, who ultimately could only be accessed through Brühl himself.

The last Polish owner of the castle was the King's brother Kazimierz Poniatowski. In late March 1769, the castle was captured by the army of "Barska" confederation, after their retreat, in April of the same year, it was occupied by Austro-Hungarian army. Thus, a new era of the castle's history began, mainly after its definite return back to the Hungarian Crown in 1772, during the First Division of Poland. After the transfer it was used by the army and then by the State Government.


Kazimierz Poniatowski, the last Polish owner of the Stará Ľubovňa castle



In 1825, the castle was purchased by the Levoca's nobleman Felix Raisz who reconstructed a part of it into an inhabitable state and he himself lived there. After that it went to the possession of the predicate "Lublovari."



In 1880 it was purchased by the town of Stara Lubovna, and two years later by the Polish nobleman Zdmorski who reconstructed it several times, equipped it with furniture and used it as his seat. In 1930's the castle was again reconstructed.

After the end of World War II, the castle went to the hands of the Czechoslovak State-it was simply confiscated. First it served the needs of the School of Agriculture, then in 1966 the museum was opened, and, at the same time its major reconstruction began. Today the castle has underwent a systematic reconstruction and conservation.



The museum focuses on the documentation of the history of the castle and its surroundings during the era of the Polish rule and documentation of folk crafts, folk costumes and folk art. There are collections of folk textiles and their use, blueprints, gingerbread-making, candle-making, basket making which survives to the present time in the nearby village Lackova, tinkery, which was until recently a typical supplementary employment of men living in several surrounding villages. Interesting are also the collections of glass-paintings.















Source text: www.slovakheritage.org/Castles/stara_lubovna.htm

[Jaga]

Pieter, thank you for spending so much time and effort and share with us a complicated history of this caste.
I was there as a child, since my father took us for a trip around Slovak Spisz, so I don't remember many details. I just remember how beautiful this part of the world is.
Spisz and Orawa are also partly Polish. I had a friend who had her summer house in Spisz. We were with her there a couple of years ago.

It is amazing, how complex a history of this region is. The majority of castles - in Slovak and Polish Spisz and Orawa were originally build by Hungarian Lords. WE NEVER LEARNED ABOUT IT IN THE POLISH HISTORY BOOKS. in Polish history books there was an emphasis on keeping history simple and as Polish as possible, maybe except the wars. So we had no idea about Hungarian lords venturing so far through Slovakia, or Gdansk being so international.

Very interesting indeed. I hope that the meaning of history would change...

[pieter]

Dear Jaga and Kaima,

I like this Kaima; 'What important Role did Lubovna Castle have in Poland?' thread, because it creates a bridge between his Slovak heritage & roots on one side (the castle is in Slovakia), and Polish history on the other side. Replying on my free day (I had to work in the evening yesteray in the muncipality as tv camera journalist/interviewer), I learned about the history of that castle and that region of Slovakia, and about the fact that there were border castles on the Polish Slovak Tatra mountain borders, and the fact that there was an important trade route from east to west and southwest to Austria and Italy, and north to Poland through ancient border crossing at Mnisek under Poprad. From you Jaga I learned that the majority of castles - in Slovak and Polish Spisz and Orawa were originally build by Hungarian Lords. I learned due to Kamia's (Ron's) thread that Copper and silver ore from Slovak mines were shipped through this route to Baltic sea ports and many other goods among them famous Hungarian wine was shipped on the rafts down the rivers Poprad, Dunajec and Wisła (Vistula) to Warsaw and to the Baltic sea ports. To be Honest in my limited knowledge of Central- and Eastern-Europe (my History study in the Netherlands was focussed primarily on Dutch, Belgian, German, French, British, Spanish, Italian history and not so much on Central-Europe and Eastern-Europe, East of Prussia, so Western centric as I may say so) I learned something from this thread. In My limited knowledge and imagination of Poland I only saw an important role of Poland as a middle point, trade route and cultural transformator between the Germanic cultures in the West and the Slavic cultures in the East, thus as a country between Prussia and Czarist Russia, with maybe some Czech-Bohemian and Italian influences, but not more than that. Ofcourse I knew that the Dutch also played a role in the Hanze trade organisation, you see that in the Dutch architecture in Gdańsk (German: Danzig; Dutch Danzig (in older Dutch: Dantzig or Danswijk), and maybe some Dutch Mennonite settlements in some places and Dutch maritime words in Polish. The German (Prussian), Italian, Bohemian, Jewish (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) and Russian/Belarussian/Ukrainian influence on Poland ofcourse was larger.

Yesterday I learned that the Tatra mountain borders weren't a wall that sealed Poland off from Slovakia, but a living border with financial-economical, political and thus strategic importance. I know little about Polish-Slovak history, except from the fact that Poland and Slovakia had different positions in the Second World War and that the Slovak army conquered a small part of Poland in the 1939 when Nazi-Germany and the SovjetUnion invaded Poland. Besides that I know nothing about Polish-Slovak relations. Ofcourse Kai's (Ron's) interesting journey to Poland and his travel report as a Slovak American who tried to learn Polish and Slovak gave an interesting insight about cultural differences and similarities between Poland and Slovakia.

Thank you very much Kai, you broadened my horizon, and created a more realistic vision about Poland than the simplistic view of a nation stuck between Germany and Russia, with a historical relationship with Lithuania and Ukraine. The latter in the sense of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795). Poland's history was not only made by it's Western and Eastern borders and conflicts and trade ties related to that, but also with it's rough Southern borders with the Slovaks, Czechs, Hungarians and Austrians. Strangely enough I knew about the Austrian occupation of Southern-Poland, but didn't linked that to Slovakia, as also being a part of the Habsburg empire and the Hungarian Kingdom. Ofcourse via the Baltic Sea Poland also had connections with the Scandinavian peoples in the North and probably trade, political and cultural ties with them. The Swedish King of Poland Sigismund III Vasa is a good example of that.

Cheers,
Pieter

[kaima]

Pieter,

That is a pretty comprehensive coverage of the timeline of events! Yes, they seem to have been quite wrapped up with Polish history, and the castle served that country well. The Polish time was also known as the heyday of the Lubovna area, with the greatest prosperity under the Polish time,Lubovna being the capitol city of the Polish Spisz ( Spis, Szepesség, Zepes, Zips).

I have not read any detailed accounts of what life was like under Polish administration rather than Hungarian, but do have a good impression from what I have read and the warmth displayed between the two countries in their museum displays.

Thanks for putting together a rather comprehensive story!

Kai

[Jaga]

Pieter, yes, our boarder with Slovakia even during the communism was not that sealed like with Soviet Union. There was so called small traffic region - where Poles and Slovaks or Czechoslovaks could cross without having passport, just with the ID. This region included the areas of Spisz and Orawa and the mountains and this is how we went to Slovakia, which was my first foreign trip, when I was 7 years old... we cross the boarder on food... which was quite unique even in these times.

There are also many mountains on Polish-Slovak boarder and it was always allowed to reach the peaks from Polish and Slovak sides. So, yes, our history is much more inclusive between Poland and Czechoslovakia than between Poland and Soviet Union. There was also a small tourist traffic between Poland and Eastern Germany, but I am less familiar with the way it worked.

Kai, I am glad that you found Polish times in Lubovna really good for the castle and the history of this region.