Zywiec and its immediate hilly vicinity are really charming and everyone will be equally satisfied by the town itself and mountains. Hikers, skiers, sailors, lovers of aquatics, paragliders, anglers and lovers of historic buildings and car tourism will be satisfied. Every person, who at least only once comes Zywiec vicinity, where the mountains meet "the sea" will come back here in future.
Settlement in the Zywiecka Valley goes back to the prehistoric time. Archeological research con-ducted between the two World Wars and in the seventeenth years bore out the settlement on an area of the city of Zywiec in the 6th century B.C. during the Halstation period of a Lusatian culture. However, the settlement on the turn of periods is bound up with Cotine Celtic tribe.
The oldest history of the Zywiecczyzna region is bound up with a district of Oswiecim and Zatorze. In 1308 the Zywiec parish (parachia aeclesie de Ziwicz) was mentioned in the Peter's - penny lists. In 1327, Zywiec became a country town-oppidum. Zywiec was called so by Jan the Duke of Oswiecim, who acknowledged himself to be a vassal of Jan de Luxemburg the King of Czech. Foundation charter is not known, however foundation of the town falls on the turn of the 13th and 14th century. The form of government imitated the one in Oswiecim. Przemyslaw, the last Duke of Piasts ruled over the Zywiecczyzna region from 1433, then the Skrzynski family of the "Labedz" (Swan) nobility assumed authority in the Zywiecczyzna.
That particular period was one of the most stormy and it didn't favoured a development of the city because members of Skrzynski family were engaged in brigandage. Above 1460 Zywiec is a property of Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk, the King of Poland. In 1474 the city is donated for a property of Piotr Komorowski, the lord in Orawa and Liptow. In 1624 Mikolaj Komorowski pledged the Zywiecczyzna for Konstancja, the Queen to Zygmunt Waza the 3rd, at the price of 600 thousand zlotys. Polish lords objected to buying the Zywiec estate because the law prohibited buying an estates by Polish Kings and members of their families. Therefore in 1631 there was passed a resolution issued by the Varsovian Seym resolving that the Queen should wielde the estates until the Rzeczpospolita (the Republic) or a nobleman buys them. In 1626 Queen Konstancja issued regulations recapituling previous grants and civic privileges and giving the definition of civic legislation. After her death, Karol Ferdynand - the bishop of Wroclaw and Jan Kazimierz - the King of Poland who stayed two times in the Castle, possessed the Zywiecczyzna region.
On the strength of a resolution issued by the seym in 1678, the Zywiecczyzna region was bought by Jan Wielopolski - the earl from Pieskowa Skala and the chancellor married to Konstancja Krystyna Komorowska. The Zywiecczyzna region has been a property of the Wielkopolski family for near 150 years. In 1808 the Zywiecczyzna region was bought by Albert de Sachsen Teschen - the Duke. After his death in 1822, Karol Habsburg received the Region as an inheritance, and the Habsburg family was the owner till the Second World War.
The Old Castle - built from crushed stone, plastered. Quadrangular tower topped with pseudo-Gothic crenels adjoins the Old Castle from the North-East. The southern wing has a two conspicuous breaks. Rooms on the ground floor and the greater part of the first floor are topped with barrel vaults. In principle, there are no original interior decorations, but only some rooms on the second floor have an incopletely preserved polychromy dating from the early part of the 18th century, and hardly perceptible painings dating from the Renaissance. The courtyard surrounded from all the sides by a fine arcaded galleries has been subjected to insignificant changes. On the ground floor there are arcades with pillars built in the Tuscan order, on the first floor - in the Jonic order, and on the second one there are arcades with cast iron posts employed instead of wooden ones in the 19th century. In the castle there are some portals with elements of Gotic and Baroque art. One of them is dated 1571 and embellished by Latin inscription.
The New Castle - palace. Classistic. Built by the Habsburg family. Baroque outbuildings, a property of the Wielopolski family, were in the site of the palace. Nowadays, there is only one outbulding, the seat of TPZZ (Discrit of Zywiec Lovers'Association). Remaining buildings were rebuilt to be a palace.
The palace was built by stages. At the very end there was built an additional part with a skittle-alley on the ground floor, and a ball-room on the first floor. The ball-room has been preserved till the present day.
Considering an acoustic the ball-room is the best place for chamber musical performances. The palace was designed by Maczynski and Stryjenski - the two famous architects at that time.
Park - There is an extensive park south of the Castle. Assumptions of the oldest foredesign dated early 18th century can be noticed in the park. Komoniecki writes in the Dziejopis Zywiecki (Histori-ographer of Zywiec) that the park was created in an Italian style. The park consists of two parts: the first one consists of beds and the second one has a stand of trees planted symmetrically. The channel built in the second half of the 18th century ranges throught the first part of the park.
The summer-house built in a style of Chinese house, with the Stary Kon (The Old Horse) the Wielopolski's coat of arms put over the roof, was also built in the sacond half of the 18th century. It is proper to add that in the first part of the 19th century the park was rearranged according to the spirit of an English landscape assumptions. It caused that above-mentioned Chinese house was placed on the island. Present arrangement of the park was designed by Brenda Colling under contract concluded by Habsburg family in the twenties. St Mary's Cathedral Church - built in the first half of the 15th century, soon after foundation of the town. Between 1515-1542 the cathedral church was altered by rasing the walls and extending the presbytery.
In the late 16th century the church was enlarged by an extension of the nave and erection of the tower according to the design made by Jan Ricci- the Opavian architect. The church was destroyed by the fire in 1711 and then it was rebuilt, however many Baroque elements were added. The presbytery has a barrel vault and lunettes. The nave is rectangular and it is topped with a lamella roof. The most interesting are: bas-relief: St Mary's Falling to Sleep - wooden, in the Late Gothic style from 1500 built by Wawrzyniec Komorowski in Nowe Miasto on the Kisucza river in 1542; Gothic sculptures of Christ Crucified and wooden high altar with two pillars and statues of the Saints. On both sides there are mensas with a sculpture of the Holy Trinity and a statue of Immaculate Conception by Maciej Weissmann from Frydek in 1724. Moreover, there are many other valuable relics in the church.
St Cross Church - built in the Gothic style in the late 14th century, consecrated in 1428. The old nave was disassembled in 1679 and substituted by the present and more capacious one. There is a rectangular nave and extended presbytery in the church.
Settlement in the Zywiecka Valley goes back to the prehistoric time. Archeological research con-ducted between the two World Wars and in the seventeenth years bore out the settlement on an area of the city of Zywiec in the 6th century B.C. during the Halstation period of a Lusatian culture. However, the settlement on the turn of periods is bound up with Cotine Celtic tribe.
The oldest history of the Zywiecczyzna region is bound up with a district of Oswiecim and Zatorze. In 1308 the Zywiec parish (parachia aeclesie de Ziwicz) was mentioned in the Peter's - penny lists. In 1327, Zywiec became a country town-oppidum. Zywiec was called so by Jan the Duke of Oswiecim, who acknowledged himself to be a vassal of Jan de Luxemburg the King of Czech. Foundation charter is not known, however foundation of the town falls on the turn of the 13th and 14th century. The form of government imitated the one in Oswiecim. Przemyslaw, the last Duke of Piasts ruled over the Zywiecczyzna region from 1433, then the Skrzynski family of the "Labedz" (Swan) nobility assumed authority in the Zywiecczyzna.
That particular period was one of the most stormy and it didn't favoured a development of the city because members of Skrzynski family were engaged in brigandage. Above 1460 Zywiec is a property of Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk, the King of Poland. In 1474 the city is donated for a property of Piotr Komorowski, the lord in Orawa and Liptow. In 1624 Mikolaj Komorowski pledged the Zywiecczyzna for Konstancja, the Queen to Zygmunt Waza the 3rd, at the price of 600 thousand zlotys. Polish lords objected to buying the Zywiec estate because the law prohibited buying an estates by Polish Kings and members of their families. Therefore in 1631 there was passed a resolution issued by the Varsovian Seym resolving that the Queen should wielde the estates until the Rzeczpospolita (the Republic) or a nobleman buys them. In 1626 Queen Konstancja issued regulations recapituling previous grants and civic privileges and giving the definition of civic legislation. After her death, Karol Ferdynand - the bishop of Wroclaw and Jan Kazimierz - the King of Poland who stayed two times in the Castle, possessed the Zywiecczyzna region.
On the strength of a resolution issued by the seym in 1678, the Zywiecczyzna region was bought by Jan Wielopolski - the earl from Pieskowa Skala and the chancellor married to Konstancja Krystyna Komorowska. The Zywiecczyzna region has been a property of the Wielkopolski family for near 150 years. In 1808 the Zywiecczyzna region was bought by Albert de Sachsen Teschen - the Duke. After his death in 1822, Karol Habsburg received the Region as an inheritance, and the Habsburg family was the owner till the Second World War.
The Old Castle - built from crushed stone, plastered. Quadrangular tower topped with pseudo-Gothic crenels adjoins the Old Castle from the North-East. The southern wing has a two conspicuous breaks. Rooms on the ground floor and the greater part of the first floor are topped with barrel vaults. In principle, there are no original interior decorations, but only some rooms on the second floor have an incopletely preserved polychromy dating from the early part of the 18th century, and hardly perceptible painings dating from the Renaissance. The courtyard surrounded from all the sides by a fine arcaded galleries has been subjected to insignificant changes. On the ground floor there are arcades with pillars built in the Tuscan order, on the first floor - in the Jonic order, and on the second one there are arcades with cast iron posts employed instead of wooden ones in the 19th century. In the castle there are some portals with elements of Gotic and Baroque art. One of them is dated 1571 and embellished by Latin inscription.
The New Castle - palace. Classistic. Built by the Habsburg family. Baroque outbuildings, a property of the Wielopolski family, were in the site of the palace. Nowadays, there is only one outbulding, the seat of TPZZ (Discrit of Zywiec Lovers'Association). Remaining buildings were rebuilt to be a palace.
The palace was built by stages. At the very end there was built an additional part with a skittle-alley on the ground floor, and a ball-room on the first floor. The ball-room has been preserved till the present day.
Considering an acoustic the ball-room is the best place for chamber musical performances. The palace was designed by Maczynski and Stryjenski - the two famous architects at that time.
Park - There is an extensive park south of the Castle. Assumptions of the oldest foredesign dated early 18th century can be noticed in the park. Komoniecki writes in the Dziejopis Zywiecki (Histori-ographer of Zywiec) that the park was created in an Italian style. The park consists of two parts: the first one consists of beds and the second one has a stand of trees planted symmetrically. The channel built in the second half of the 18th century ranges throught the first part of the park.
The summer-house built in a style of Chinese house, with the Stary Kon (The Old Horse) the Wielopolski's coat of arms put over the roof, was also built in the sacond half of the 18th century. It is proper to add that in the first part of the 19th century the park was rearranged according to the spirit of an English landscape assumptions. It caused that above-mentioned Chinese house was placed on the island. Present arrangement of the park was designed by Brenda Colling under contract concluded by Habsburg family in the twenties. St Mary's Cathedral Church - built in the first half of the 15th century, soon after foundation of the town. Between 1515-1542 the cathedral church was altered by rasing the walls and extending the presbytery.
In the late 16th century the church was enlarged by an extension of the nave and erection of the tower according to the design made by Jan Ricci- the Opavian architect. The church was destroyed by the fire in 1711 and then it was rebuilt, however many Baroque elements were added. The presbytery has a barrel vault and lunettes. The nave is rectangular and it is topped with a lamella roof. The most interesting are: bas-relief: St Mary's Falling to Sleep - wooden, in the Late Gothic style from 1500 built by Wawrzyniec Komorowski in Nowe Miasto on the Kisucza river in 1542; Gothic sculptures of Christ Crucified and wooden high altar with two pillars and statues of the Saints. On both sides there are mensas with a sculpture of the Holy Trinity and a statue of Immaculate Conception by Maciej Weissmann from Frydek in 1724. Moreover, there are many other valuable relics in the church.
St Cross Church - built in the Gothic style in the late 14th century, consecrated in 1428. The old nave was disassembled in 1679 and substituted by the present and more capacious one. There is a rectangular nave and extended presbytery in the church.