Located a mere 21km west of Tarnów on the major A4/E40 international east-west highway, Dębno Castle is an easy and worthwhile detour for anyone travelling between Kraków (63km away) and Tarnów. This late-Gothic knight's residence was built between 1470 and 1480 by Jakub Dębiński, the Kasztelan of Kraków. At that time, the emphasis was beginning to shift from protection to prestige, as indicated by the beautiful brick and stone exterior enhanced by towers with lovely bay window trusses and door and window frames embellished with organic, geometric and heraldic motifs. Though rebuilt and remodelled several times as it passed through the centuries and the hands of several Polish noble families, the castle at Dębno has maintained its original appearance of four two-storey wings connected by wooden interior arcades. At one time surrounded by a moat, today a wooden bridge still leads you through the Baroque-era portal into the cobbled rectangular courtyard with a well at its centre. Since 1976 the castle has been home to a branch of the Tarnów Regional Museum - The Museum of Antique Interiors - and it's sumptuous displays of historic period furniture and domestic items, paintings, weaponry and religious objects.

If you don't have a car, you can get there by catching a bus, which run about twice an hour from the 'Tarnów ul. Sikorskiego - Huta' stop outside the Świt shopping centre (B-5). The journey costs 4zł, takes 30-35mins and drops you off right in Dębno within walking distance of the castle.

Admission 8/4zł, weekends 12/6zł.