The Castle Hill, which stands out markedly in Cieszyn’s landscape, with its slender Gothic tower and Romanesque rotunda, is generally acknowledged to be the oldest part of the town. Legend puts the date of Cieszyn’s foundation at 810, but archaeological research on the Castle Hill points to an even earlier settlement. The first convincing traces date from around 500 BC and indicate links between the inhabitants of the hill and the peoples from both the south and north sides of the Moravian Gate. In the last few centuries BC they were heavily influenced by the Laten Culture which was developing to the south of the Moravian Gate. They were farmers and stockmen, but were also craftsmen, evidenced, for example, by the discovery of a ladle for working with silver. A gold Celtic coin also dates from that period. The first four centuries AD are characterised by a strong resurgence of the Moravian Gate as a trading route, attested by numerous finds of Roman coins. 
From the end of the 4th century AD a period of little settlement took place, ending at the turn of the 10th century. That marked the moment of unbroken inhabitation of the Castle Hill, most probably connected with the razing of the nearby stronghold in Podobora (called Old Cieszyn) during the time of the raid by Światopełk II, Prince of Great Moravia. The people of Podobora may have founded the new Cieszyn stronghold on the Castle Hill. This stronghold was fortified by ramparts, whose thickness and height reached 10 m. Within the embankment were small huts leading off a road laid with wooden boards. Among the remains of the buildings objects were found attesting to the advanced culture and Slavonic origin of the stronghold’s inhabitants.
Later in history the Cieszyn stronghold gained in significance as the border outpost on the southern borders of Bolesław Chrobry’s (Boleslaus the Brave) territories. As the castellan’s seat it also became the administrative centre of the first Piasts. It was mentioned for the first time in a bull of Pope Hadrian IV dated 1155.
The stronghold gained a new religious function around the middle of the 11th century with the building of the Romanesque rotunda of St. Nicholas – one of the oldest Christian churches in Poland. This sturdy building, constructed of limestone ashlars (stone blocks), was linked by a walkway with the castellan’s residence – the palatium – which could exploit the rotunda’s defensive architecture during an armed attack.
During the Period of Fragmentation, which started in, Cieszyn was acquired by Władysław II (Vladislas II), the son of Bolesław Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wry-mouthed), who incorporated it into the Duchy of Opole (Oppeln) and Racibórz (Ratibor). As a result of further divisions Mieszko I (Mesco I; 1281- c.1315), the son of Władysław (Vladislas) of Opole, created an autonomous duchy in 1290 with Cieszyn as its capital from the lands he inherited following the death of his father. Most probably the beginning of intensive architectural development of the Castle Hill followed the duchy’s capital being established in Cieszyn. Mieszko I (Mesco I), the first Prince of Cieszyn, laid the foundations for the independent functioning of the Duchy of Cieszyn. But it was his descendants i.e. his son Kazimierz I (Casimir I; 1316-1358) and grandson Przemysław I Noszak (Premislaus I; 1358-1410) who began to build a splendid Gothic residence. On the building they employed artisans who had worked at other courts such as the pupils of Peter Parler, sculptor at the court of the Kings of Bohemia in Prague. They left their stamp on the castle’s architectural character, as well as fashioning many sculptural elements, including the coats of arms with Piast eagles which can be seen on the Piast Tower. Floor tiles of Prince Przemysław (Premislaus) with the Piasts’ arms and the inscription Premislaus Dei Gratia Dux Tessinensis also date from this period.
The Gothic castle consisted of two parts; the upper and lower. In the Lower Castle, access to which was rendered difficult by a drawbridge, were kitchens and stores, the lodgings of the castle servants, the armoury, stables and dungeons. It had three levels (the lowest of which was underground), and towers “with several powerful cannons”. The Upper Castle consisted of living quarters, including the Prince’s own magnificent chambers. The castle courtyard, surrounded by three concentric walls with towers, contained the castle chapel and a defensive tower, called the Piast Tower today. This tower would have served as a last-ditch defensive refuge in the event of the castle falling into enemy hands. The machicolations, i.e. a battlemented gallery supported on stone corbels attest to the tower’s defensive function. Missiles would have been thrown and boiling liquids poured on assailants through holes. The tower had a steeply pitched roof, while the quoins were decorated with coats of arms symbolising ducal might. The tower provided living quarters, functioned as a dungeon and as a watchtower, owing to its favourable location. The size of Cieszyn Castle can be imagined when we consider that in 1454 it played host to the retinue of Elżbieta Rakuszanka (Elizabeth Rakuszanka), fiancée of King Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, consisting of 2,000 Polish and 300 Bohemian knights.
In the 15th and 16th centuries fires ravaged the castle on several occasions, after which rebuilding work was quickly carried out altering the buildings’ architecture in keeping with contemporary trends. The first reference to the castle, dating from 1619, can be found in the Silesian Chronicle of Jacob Schickfus, the secretary of Princess Elżbieta Lukrecja (Elizabeth Lucretia), revealing its magnificence and strength. The chronicler wrote, “Among the buildings on the Castle Hill one can see the ducal residence and the conspicuous tall castle, which is well fortified, initially built by Kazimierz so that it might be a border fortress, if it were adequately supplied with ammunition. Various types of large guns stand by the castle gate on a circular bastion. The chambers in the castle are beautiful and finely arranged, some very high up, some midway up, and others beneath the ground, reached by stairs, still with sufficient illumination, entering through openings from the sides”.
The last male heir of the Cieszyn Piast Princes, Fryderyk Wilhelm (Frederick William) died in 1625. His sister, Elżbieta Lukrecja inherited the duchy but only until her death. Her reign coincided with destructive religious wars between Catholics and Protestants. The Duchy of Cieszyn, as a fief of the Kings of Bohemia, was linked to the Catholic Habsburg Monarchy. Notwithstanding that the duchy’s mainly Protestant folk sought religious independence. In the Duchy of Cieszyn during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) armed disputes took place between the hegemonious goals of the Austrian Emperors and the separatist goals of the Bohemian Protestants. Cieszyn was seized several times by the armies of the Protestant Union as well as the Habsburg Catholic League (in 1621, 1623 and 1626), which plundered the town and imposed high contributions on the townspeople.
Wars led to the downfall of the ducal residence. In 1645 the Castle was seized by a corps of Swedish cavalrymen. Princess Elżbieta Lukrecja and all her noblemen fled abroad seeking protection under the wing of neighbouring Poland. Only in 1646 did the Austrian forces compel the Swedish crew to capitulate after storming the Castle. The castle fulfilled its military role for the last time then, an event which was described by the chronicler Frederick Luca in 1689, “At the time of the Cieszyn Princes the castle contained a famous armoury, or arsenal, consisting of the most varied, artistically fashioned arms (actually in use) and also a great deal of cannons. Since the Cieszyn Princes found themselves ceaselessly at war, often taking part in great expeditions against the Turks, and organising the defence of their lands against enemy invasions. Consequently, exigency demanded that they organise their arsenal in such a way that in a state of emergency they were able to equip several cavalry and infantry regiments with armour, pistols, rifles and muskets both in the German and Hungarian manner.”
Princess Elżbieta Lukrecja died in 1653 and the Duchy of Cieszyn being a fiefdom of the Kings of Bohemia passed to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs established an office in the Castle to administer the landed property of the Teschener Kammer, an immense latifundium created from the former estates of the Piast Princes. Soon after, in 1659, the ruined castle buildings began to be pulled down and replaced by a brewery and other building and stores. The Castle gradually fell into ruin, with local people also contributing by removing stones, although it did not lose its grandeur for many years. It was written that it consisted of “two towers – an old one, and a tall one, a chapel, a bastion with a round tower, with a clock on it, and within it the steward’s quarters”.
The new Cieszyn Princes of the Habsburg Dynasty spent little time in Cieszyn. The first Prince to actually stay in the castle was Charles Habsburg. In 1836 he initiated the demolishing of the remains of the Upper Castle, with the exception of the Romanesque rotunda and the Piast Tower. In the years 1838-1840 a Hunting Residence was built on the site of the Lower Castle, designed by Joseph Kornhäusel, a distinguished architect of Viennese neo-Classicism. Kornhäusel designed a neo-Classicist orangery (demolished in 1966) which adjoined the residence’s façade facing the town. He also modified the castle’s rotunda which became a neo-Classicist pavilion. The castle grounds were levelled and a romantic, landscape park established there. The ducal brewery was moved to a building on the northern slope of the Castle Hill in 1846. From then on the Cieszyn Castle became a typical example of neo-Classicist romantic composition of simple architecture, elegantly set in parkland. The romantic character of the park was accented by the final piece of construction, fake ruins built on the site of one of the medieval towers by Archduke Frederick Habsburg in 1914.
The last chapter in the history of the Cieszyn Castle were the excavations carried out in the years 1941-42 and 1947-55. The lower part of the Romanesque rotunda was unearthed. In 1955 it was returned to its original appearance. In 1988 the renovation and restoration work on the Piast Tower which had lasted several years was completed.

M. Makowski, transl. D.French