Town in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
Photo: Fry72, Karel Frydrýšek, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Pilica is a market town in the Silesian Voivodeship in southwest Poland. With a population of 1900 in 2019, it's the administrative centre for a straggle of villages in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, the limestone hills also known as the "Polish Jura".
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This is its third or fourth incarnation, the "Sobieskiej Palace" created in the 1730s by removing defensive features and making it a bling mansion. This passed through various private and state owners and in 1989 was bought by Barbara Piasecka Johnson (1937-2013) to house her art collection. Renovation work was halted in 1992 when the sale was disputed, and the legal ructions were still grinding through the courts 20 years later when Johnson died. Nobody else has the money or will to take on such a huge place mired in an ownership dispute, so this grand old pile has fallen derelict.
Ruins of a 13th century castle, partly restored, atop a limestone hill which is a nature reserve.
Under the Columns
Smart comfy hotel with a good restaurant.
There is no public transport to Pilica. The nearest railway station is Wolbrom, which has trains every two hours from Katowice (80 min), heading for Kozlow.
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Katowice · International · KTW
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