Karpniki Castle is a restored historic building providing hotel and restaurant services. Karpniki Castle is not open to the public.
During a reservation stay, guests have the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of bygone times thanks to the preserved architectural elements from the medieval, renaissance, baroque and historicist periods.
Zamek Karpniki History
Due to a few significant enlargements over the centuries, the castle changed its form, and its interiors hide the details from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque and historicism – the last reconstruction undertaken in the 19th century gave the castle a neo-Gothic appearance.
During your stay in the castle, you can spend the night in the same rooms where the Queen Mary of Bavaria, King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm III, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the Hohenzollern family or the Hessian princes family slept.
The village of Karpniki, situated at the foot of the Sokole Mountains, is mentioned for the first time in the 14th century. The Castle, whose history dates back to the 15th century, lies amidst the picturesque scenery of the mountainous landform and the surrounding hills and is connected with distinguished Silesian families. One of the first owners of the fortified building, surrounded by a moat, was Cunze von Predel. In 1476 the old, distinguished Schaffgotsch family took possession of the property. Hans Schoff called Gotsche was the first in the family who became the landlord of the Karpniki property.
The estate remained in the hands of the Schaffgotsch family until 1580. Possession of the Castle changed hands several times and in 1725 it became the property of the Schaffgotsch family again. After Count Franz Wilhelm von Schaffgotsch died childless in 1774 the Karpniki property passed into the hands of the royal administration, and, three years later in February 1777, it became part of the property of the Krzeszów Cistercian monastery. In 1784 the estate was purchased by Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, and in 1787 Karl Georg Heinrich Count von Hoym is mentioned as the owner, who in turn sold the property to Caspar Conrad of the von Zedlitz family.
The Karpniki estate remained in the hands of the von Zedlitz family until 1822, when its last owner Freiherr Otto von Zedlitz und Neukirch sold the property to the King of Prussia` s brother Wilhelm von Preussen and his wife Princess Marianne. It was the Hohenzollern family who made the property famous and had the biggest influence on the present shape of the Castle building. Straight after the purchase of the property, the first renovation works took place. Their aim was to adapt the Castle for the Prince`s family needs.
During WWII the Castle was one of the places designated by Günther Grundmann, district art restorer, for the museum repository. Fearing bombing, the last owner of Karpniki, Prince Ludwig von Hessen und bei Rhein took the art collections away from Darmstadt and stored them in Karpniki.
After WWII from February 1946 till 1949 the People`s University had its seat in the Castle. It was the first institution of this kind in the Lower Silesia
In the following years the Castle repeatedly changed its owners and, in spite of many repair and protection works, it gradually fell into ruin.
In 2009 the Castle with the park and the surrounding land was bought by a development company. The company`s aim was to renovate the Castle and to restore it to its former glory. The President of the Republic of Poland gave Historic Monument title to the Castle, which is the highest form of appreciation for it.