History
Chrostowa appears in written sources only in 1404, as one of the villages belonging to the extensive estate of the family of Półkozice. The construction of the castle, known as Grodzisko or Kamyk, dates back to the second half of the 13th century. The building itself appears in documents in 1539, when the its functioning probably came to an end. The term “alias Grodzisko” used at that time may indicate that the building was already falling and perhaps it was abandoned. The owner of the castle was than Krzysztof Niewiarowski of the Półkozic coat of arms, later the burgrave of Kraków, who bought the castle from Jadwiga, the wife of Sebastian Wielogłowski for 950 florins.
Architecture
The castle was erected on a flattened top of a mountain ridge with an oval shape and dimensions of 20×28 meters, lying on the left bank of the Stradomka River. The promontory of the hill was cut off from the rest of the area with a transverse ditch that passed into the surrounding moat. At the edges of the flattened hill ran an earth rampart and an additional rampart surrounded the hillsides. A stone building was placed in the middle of the fortifications.
In the second phase of the expansion, which falls on the 14th century, in the western part of the headland a new building was built in the type of a defensive-residential tower on a square plan with a side of 7.5 meters. The relics of the walls have remained up to 190 cm thick. In the second phase, the earth rampart was also strengthened with a stone core. The rest of the courtyard was probably occupied by timber auxiliary buildings.
Current state
The castle has not survived to modern times. Only earth fortifications are visible, and the relics of the walls lie underground. Admission to the wooded castle’s hill is free.
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