1. 3rd High School of Katerini Militou 1, Katerini “History tells us our story”A multilateral Comenius Project The Casimir Castle The history through the centuries 2012

2. 2011-2013 The Casimir Castle Casimir Castlebelongsto the mostfamousmonumentsof the city Przemyśl. Itislocated on the Castle Hill area of ​​1 ha, whichrisesto a heightof 270 m abovesealevelwithsteepslopesfromall the sides. Thishilltookitsnamefrom the brickcastle in the Gothic style thatwasbuilthereafter 1340 AD, during the reignof Casimir the Great, and whichwasrebuiltmanytimes. This information isgivenby the greatestPolish medieval chronicler - Jan Dlugosz. Its walls were the witnesses of many important events in the Polish history. "Historytellsusour story" A MultilateralComenius Project

3. 2011-2013 Location 3 History 4 The ruins of the monastery in the castle 5 Bibliography 8 Location Casimir Castle belongs to the city of Przemysl. It is located on a hill over the small village of Ojców in northern Przemysl. The castle has a wonderful view on the river Vistula Pictures 2nd, 3rd & 4th: The ruins of the castle (pictures 2, 3) and an aero photography of the castle (picture 4) "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project

4. 2011-2013 History King Kazimierz the Great built the castle in Kalisz as part of a sequence of municipal defensive facilities in the northern part of the town, next to Toruńska Gate.Casimir III the Great (Polish: Kazimierz Wielki) (30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370), was the last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty (reigned 1333–1370) and an important historical figure of medieval times. From 14th century on this was a place where trials were held and also the city authorities’ appointment. This period of time was the golden age for the castle and its nearby town. The great fire of 1537 did significant damage to the castle. In the XVI and XVII centuries, during the warswith the Cossacks, Turkish, Wallachian and Swedishitwithstoodseveralsieges, the best knownoneswere in the 1648/49 and 1656. After that the castle fell into decline. Krasicki appointed a famous architect of that time to rebuild some parts of the castle. Only a tower and the castle’s gate were preserved. A big fire in 1792 destroyed totally the castle continuing its previous decline. In 1803 the Prussian government sold the ruins of the city castle to a private person, who used it as construction material. Pictures 5th & 6th: The castle as it looks today "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project

5. 2011-2013 • The ruins of the monastery in the castle • Construction materials: • The building was made of plenty of materials such as fine, sandstone, lime-sand mortar stone originated from the nearby quarries of Kruhel. • Architecture: • The height of the walls is about 1 meter and the depth of the monastery building is 30cm. A rectangular building is formed of the main body with a length of 34.2 meter and width of 15.2 meter which ranks it in the Benedictine foot. The floor plan of the rotunda has a form of a regular circle with a diameter of 7.64 meter. Wall’s thickness ranges from 170 cm to 140cm. In the external part there are slabs with a thickness of 5-8cm. • The rotunda in Przemysl constitutes a distinctly predominant architectonic feature. It was located at the highest point of the hillfort, while the land around the rotunda descends unevenly on all sides. From the architectonic perspective, the concept of selecting such an inconvenient site for construction seems rather surprising and necessitates locating the oblong building on the sloping area which descends towards north-west by 2 m, while in "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project

6. 2011-2013 the vicinity of the layout there was a place suitable for such a construction where, during the political dominance of Kiev Rus, the Orthodox church of Volodar was built! Only after BolesławChrobry military campaign in 1018, Przemysl and Czerwieńhillforts were recaptured by Rus, it was decided that Przemysl must be strengthened since it was an important watchtower on the eastern frontier of the country, and that simultaneously a princely residence should be built in a form combined with a chapel. The change of the complex character, from solely church to residence, seem to explain the reason for building an empora into the nave as a secondary construction, not connected with the original stone bond inside the rotunda. That change of function might also explain the secondary function of the entrance to the rotunda ground floor. Pictures 7th & 8th: Drawings of the rotunda "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project

7. 2011-2013 • Social life: • Materials such as horn, iron, pottery, bone objects and others show a lot of things about the daily life of the residents. It is very possible that the post-Romans had influenced the residents because a description in Roman language has been found. • The monastery as a bishop: • The fact that no weapons and luxury items have been found there excludes the possibility that the building has been used not as a palace but as a Benedictine monastery. The basisofthisclaimisAction, madeby Pope John IX (898-900) in the ninthcentury, torestore the higher Church in Moravia and the resultingactivityof the papallegates - the archbishop and bishops John Daniel and Benedict. At thattime, realizing the Pope’s command, theyconsecratedanarchbishop and threesuffraganbishops. Accordingtotheseresearchers, theyhad set up the Archbishopof the Old City, and the bishops in Nitra, Krakow and Przemysl. The namesof the hierarchy are unfortunatelyunknown. Itissupposedthat the Archbishopof the Old City was the successor ofMethodius - Gorazd. Whereas, a conditionfordetermining the bishopthatmayreside in Przemysl, then, is a manuscriptfrom the fifteenthcentury, whichsaysthatoneof the Methodius’s students - Sawa, was a bishopofLachs, and asoneknows the oldest and mostsignificantadministrative, military and religioustownof the area was just Przemysl. "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project

8. 2011-2013 • Nowadays: • Today the castle has not been fully renovated. Tillnowonly the ogivalgateof the castlehasbeenpreserved.The walls and the tower are now completely built of stones. In the present, although the reconstruction work is still in progress, the castle site operates as a museum which makes it a fine tourist attraction. Picture 9th: The castle as it is still being renovated • The Casimir Castle and European culture: • The castle has similar architecture style to other european castles of that period. There have also been found Latin descriptions in the castle’s monastery. A fact that connects the castle to the Italian civilization. Bibliography • http://www.panoramio.com/photo/52814176 • http://krodo.pl/place/details/1724/tab/2 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przemysl • http://www.comeniushistoryproject.eu/ "History tells us our story" A Multilateral Comenius Project