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SZYDLÓW |
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First impressions of SZYDLÓW , 50km east of Jedrzejów, are less than
promising. Perched atop a hill amid undulating Malopolska farmlands,
this half-deserted rural backwater is certainly not a place to head for
in search of action. What makes a visit here worthwhile, however, is the
remnants of the fortified Gothic architectural complex built by King
Kazimierz the Great in the mid-fourteenth century.
Though the road takes you up around the top of the town, the principal
entrance to the Stare Miasto is through the Brama Krakowska (Kraków
Gate), a towering structure enhanced by the attic added in the late
1500s. Despite wartime devastation of the town, substantial sections of
the fortifications, notably the walls, have survived essentially intact.
Clambering around the chunky stone battlements, you sense that King
Kazimierz, an indefatigable builder of castles, was a man who put
security first. Certainly, the defences he raised here were enough to
see Szydlów through the depredations and invasions that ruined many
neighbouring towns in later centuries. A fair bit of the castle itself
survives, too, notably a solid-looking tower that's now the town museum
(May-Sept: Tues, Thurs-Sun 8am-3.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; Oct-April:
Tues-Sun 8am-3.30pm 4zl), housing a low-key collection of local
artefacts and historical finds.
West across the wide, open square, stuck out on the far edge of the
medieval complex is the synagogue , a large structure surrounded by
heavy stone buttresses. One of the oldest synagogues in the country and
built, according to local legend, at the instigation of Esterka, King
Kazimierz's fabled Jewish mistress, the building is currently closed up
and empty, waiting for someone to stump up the money to do something
with it.
Despite being torched by the Nazis in 1944, the Gothic parish church ,
north of the Rynek, retains a few elements of its original decoration,
notably the tryptych on the main altar. Wszystkich Swietych (All Saints'
Church), marooned outside the main city walls across the road from the
Kraków Gate, fared little better, though you can still see sections of
the original Gothic polychromy on the walls.
Buses serving Kielce and Jedrzejów run from the stop on the main square,
There's nowhere decent to stay in town, and eating opportunities are
limited to the basic café and snack-bar places on the square.
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