写真

Szydlow is one of the oldest Polish towns. It was granted a charter by King Ladislaus the Elbow on 1 of July 1329. Thus the inhabitants of this medieval town on the Ciekaca River became direct subjects of the king, who was represented locally by a partician from Cracow, named Zemmiloni.
The town owes its present looks to King Casimir the Great, who took advantage of its position and surrounded it with defensive walls, covering the area of 6,5 ha.

It flourished in the 16th century. Money flowed in from the blooming trade and craft. Szydlow was famous for the production of woollen cloth. A document signed by King Sigismund the Old in 1520, mentions existing guilds of blacksmiths, cart-wrights, saddlers, shoemarkers, tailors, bakers, smokers, ironworkers, copper-smiths, potters, capmakers and coopers.
In 1528 the citizens of Szydlow constructed the waterworks at their own expense. It was a real technical masterpiece at the time. Water was drawn from the river and raised to the town level by means of a system of scoop wheels. The machinery was placed in a building called "rurmus". It had a container at the top, from where flew to the houses and the town baths.
The Swedish deluge put an end to the Golden Age. The town was burned and plundered repeatedly, and the inhabitants slaughtered. According to the sources, in 1615 there were 1250 people in Szydlow, living in 241 houses, while after the deluge there were 350 people and 21 houses left.
Those events can be matched only by the damage done by World War II, when Szydlow was the point of resistance to the German army.

The royal town of Szydlow, in spite of its unfortunate past, has preserved much of its former grandeur. Charmingly situated, it attracts many visitors with its medieval wall and street system and numerous monuments.


The Cracow Gate is one of the three gates existing of old at the inlet of the tracts into the town. The main frame of the gate dates from the 14th century. The upper story was transformed in Renaissance style at the beginning of the 16th century. It is adorned with an attic and circular pinnacles placed at the comers. The stone stairs, situated at the West wall lead to a sidewalk for the guard in the town walls. The protruding front part of the gate has a vaulted arch whence an iron drag hung closing the gate from inside. The gate building has a square part projecting forward from the outer side and being not the gate properly speaking. That gate part in question also played a part in the defense system of the entrance to the town by protecting the drawbridge leading to it.

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