It is an impressive Gothic-Renaissance building surrounded by an English-style castle park. Opposite the castle there is a 19th-century Hapsburg palace complex.
The old castle was built in Żywiec in the 15th century. The construction of the castle is attributed to the princes of Oświęcim or to Mikołaj Strzała the Count of Kotowicze (the first half of the 15th century). Initially there was a residential tower and several buildings surrounded by ramparts and a moat. The castle was extended and at the end of the 15th century it had towers and battlements. Renaissance cloisters, which can be admired in the courtyard of the castle, were built at the end of the sixteenth century and were supposed to resemble those at the Wawel Castle. The owners of the castle were successively the Komorowscy, the Vasa, the Wielopolscy and the Habsburg families. The latter ones built in 1983-1911 in front of castle a palace called the New Castle.
In 1945, the building became the property of the town. Currently, the chambers of the castle house the Town Museum and there is a park extending around it.
Address:
Muzeum Miejskie w Żywcu - Stary Zamek
ul. Zamkowa 2
34-300 Żywiec
woj. śląskie
PL
EN
DE