Piast's Castle

Dating back to the 14th century, Piast's Castle is thought to have been erected in concert with Gliwice's city wall and other fortifications. Changing owners and undergoing several stages of reconstruction and renovation over the centuries, the castle is today a bit of a hodge-podge of styles and materials. In the 1950s it was renovated to become part of the city museum and has since been called Piast's Castle, though there is no evidence to suggest it ever belonged to the Silesian Piast dynasty. Thanks to a little love from the EU, the castle completed a major 3-year renovation in 2008 and now has a multimedia permanent exhibition on the life and times of the city and its people. Visitors are given a thorough presentation of the region's primeval history from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages with a bevy of archaeological findings, including the crowd-pleasing skeletons of a wooly mammoth and shaggy rhino. The history of Gliwice from its 13th century founding to 1989 is also on display via a variety of media, as well as an ethnographic exhibit portraying village life and a tourist info centre.