Lublin Castle

Lublin Castle is a medieval castle close to the old town and city center. On the hill where there was a wooden castle in the 12th century. This was the first castle of Lublin. One was made of stone in the 13th century and part of the structure is still preserved. Following the wars in the 17th century, the castle was damaged. Only the oldest sections, the keep and the chapel stayed intact. Afterwards, Lublin came under Russian rule after the Stanisław Staszic initiative. A full reconstruction in English neo-Gothic style began between 1826 and 1828. The castle was used as a prison for the next 128 years: as a Tsarist prison from 1831-1915, in independent Polish prison from 1918-1939, and its most infamous time during the Nazi occupation of the city from 1939 to 1944, when it housed 40,000 to 80,000 prisoners, many of them Polish resistance members.