Rembów – Castle Szumsko

History

   The first known owners of the village of Rembów were representatives of the Odrowąż family. They began construction of a castle called Szumsko at the beginning of the 14th century. Its founder might have been hypothetical Krzesław or Jakub, after which death the castle became the property of the Porait family. When they built a new residence in Kurozwęki, Szumsko was abandoned and partly demolished. The castle was used briefly, which could have caused structural errors, because it was not placed on the rock, but on the molded loess, which caused the walls to fall.

Architecture

   Initially, the castle consisted of a perimeter wall built of sandstone and erratic boulders, marking an irregular oval measuring 24 x 36 meters. Its eastern part was much higher than the western one. The gate was in the south-west part, and to the east of it was a building measuring 6.5 x 7.7 meters. The center of the courtyard was occupied by a house, probably a tower house, with two or three floors on a square plan with a side of 6 meters and a wall thickness of 1 meter.
   The main tower house adjoined by its northern wall to the elongated building on a trapezoidal plan, erected at the northern part of the perimeter wall, probably in the second stage of expansion. It consisted of three rooms and had dimensions of 6 x 24 meters.
   In the eastern part of the courtyard stood another tower house on a square plan with a side of 5.2 meters and a wall thickness of 1.3 to 1.5 meters. This tower was located in the highest, north-west part of the castle, at the culmination of the hill, in the immediate vicinity of the perimeter wall. This indicates that it probably had the function of a bergfried.

   The only element beyond the perimeter walls was located in the eastern part
, housing a room measuring  2 x 3 meters space. The castle was surrounded by a ditch, from which the excavated stones were used to build Szumsko.

Current state

   Unfortunately, the castle has not survived to modern times, which is sad because with a small cubature it presented considerable richness with many buildings, towers and the perimeter of the walls. Only relics of stone foundations are visible. Admission to the castle area is free.

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bibliography:
Lasek P., Obronne siedziby rycerskie i możnowładcze w czasach Kazimierza Wielkiego [w:] Wielkie murowanie. Zamki w Polsce za Kazimierza Wielkiego, red. A.Bocheńska, P. Mrozowski, Warszawa 2019.

Leksykon zamków w Polsce, red. L.Kajzer, Warszawa 2003.
Wróblewski S., Zamki i dwory obronne województwa sandomierskiego w średniowieczu, Nowy Sącz 2006.