The reconstruction of the appearance of Radosno Castle was undertaken by Klaudia Bibrowska, Zofia Golańska and Róża Krawczyk, students of architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology. Thanks to their work, we can see what Radosno Castle might have looked like in its heyday. Only the ruins of two towers of the 13th-century structure have survived to this day.
The remains of Radosno Castle are located in the north-western part of the Suchy Mountains, between Sokołowski and Rybnica Leśna in the municipality of Mieroszów in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is not known on whose initiative the castle was built. Some historians claim that the construction should be linked to the person of Bolko I, Duke of Świdnica-Jawor, others that the castle was built by the Czechs. For more than a century, the building changed hands until, in 1497, the mayor of Wrocław, Georg von Stein, by order of the Czech king Władysław Jagiellon, captured and destroyed the castle. Today we can only see a fragment of the cylindrical defence tower and small ground-level fragments of the residential part.
What might the fortress have looked like in the past? Students Klaudia Bibrowska, Zofia Golańska and Róża Krawczyk decided to answer this question. They prepared the visualisations and a 3D model as part of a semester project in the research methodology class taught by Dr Roland Mruczek. First, the students analysed historical sources, scientific publications and iconographics depicting the castle. The next step was an on-site visit, during which they took photographs and made illustrative drawings. They had to determine where the entrance gate was located, whether there was a gate building, how high the defence tower was, how many storeys the residential building had, and why the mortar of the castle was pink in colour.
In the prepared design, the students placed the entrance gate on the south side. A wooden platform led to the gate, which was built along the perimeter walls. According to their concept, the tower, the ruins of which still survive today, was the tower of the final defence. This is evidenced by the narrow lower storey, which is crowned by a stone vault and its location on the side facing the greatest danger.
The ruins of Radosno Castle:
The entrance to the tower today sits one and a half metres above ground level. Sources have indicated that it is four metres. But a keen eye will still spot fragments of the reveal of the now completely destroyed upper entrance to the bergfriede. In the past, it may have been even higher (in the courtyard lies a 4-metre layer of rubble from the destruction of the castle as a result of the siege), which further supports the assumption that this is a bergfried, as the entrances to towers of this type were led high enough to be accessible only from wooden platforms that could be removed in case of danger, the project’s authors explain.
The students estimate that the tower was 25 m high. They determined this by analysing the diameter (9 m) and other fortified structures of the period, which were often erected with a 1:3 ratio, i.e. the height was three dimensions of the tower base. In the design, the tower tapers upwards and is topped by a wooden defensive porch. They placed similar defensive porches over the main entrance and at the front.
There was a perpendicular wall adjacent to the south wall of the castle. According to the students, it could have been part of the body of the gate building. In addition, they assumed the existence of a perpendicular walled gate building topped with a sloping roof. The outer walls were supposed to be 9 m high and topped with a crenellation. They also believe that the farmyard was finished with a wooden deck just over 1 m wide.
The castle was probably built of local stone (melaphyre). The excavation of the stone was turned into a moat. The piers and structural elements of the ceilings are thought to have been made of wood, and the roof of the living area may have been finished with stone slate.
Visiting the modest ruins of the castle today, we probably have a lot of trouble imagining its shape. This is why the reconstruction, despite many debatable elements, has considerable didactic and popularising value. It also provides a pretext for thinking about a project for the conservation and adaptation of the ruins of Radosno, which after all lie on a very frequented tourist trail,” says Dr. Mruczek.
project: Klaudia Bibrowska, Zofia Golańska and Róża Krawczyk
source: Wrocław University of Technology
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