Fairy tales, palaces, and beautiful, untouched nature
when you visit Silesia in the South of Poland.
This part of the Eastern European nation is known as “Country of castles”.
Because of its long and varied history,
several hundred manor houses of the former nobility can be found in Silesia.
Those places once filled with glory and pomp are ruins today.
They all share the same sad story:
Most of the castles date back to the Middle Ages but they are fading into obscurity.
As part of our road trip to Poland in autumn 2019, we wanted to rediscover those undisclosed landmarks.
Join us while we are exploring two more fantastic
but hidden treasures in chapter four of our Poland adventure.
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Welcome to chapter four of our Poland series!
At the end of this episode, we have a special announcement,
so please make sure to watch the whole video.
See you in a bit and enjoy our new adventure.
For five days, we have been traveling in Poland to explore all kinds of abandoned places.
But it was not industry or forgotten vehicles that captivated us the most.
No, it was the beauty of the country’s numerous derelict palaces.
In our previous episode, we entered this glorious castle.
The intriguing history in combination with its splendor of a bygone era was attracting us for hours.
But as it turned out, this was only one of many palatial ruins in Silesia.
Or how we like to call it now: The country of castles.
It was already late in the evening when we reached this remote area.
The sun was about to set while we were still on the hunt for forgotten beauties in Silesia.
Hidden behind a former brewery, you will not find this mansion by accident.
After a lot of research, we were glad to finally explore the old palace and see it with our own eyes.
From what we knew will be inside, we were expecting a fabulous castle,
fairly decorated, and with lots of pomp and former glory.
We were searching for a magnificent palace but all we got was this derelict ruin.
And as we entered the place, we were disappointed at first.
But then, it all changed.
The history of this site dates back to the 13th century.
Nobody knows how the castle looked back then, but it is said
that it was a stone fortress built to defend an important trade route.
The castle became a ruin over the course of the centuries.
While the rundown structure was turned into the brewery you could already see in our drone footage,
a manor was constructed right next to it around 1850.
Silesia was not Polish back then; it was part of Prussia.
Around the year 1900, a German priest purchased the property,
renovated the building and transformed it into a school to teach underdeveloped children.
But soon after, it was used as a mental hospital, mainly for female patients.
The mentally ill got help and could recover in the scenic landscape of rural Silesia
far away from the bustle of the cities.
But the Nazi’s seizure of power in 1933 changed everything.
The so-called race hygiene of the National Socialists was the starting point of a very sad and major crime.
Today, nothing reminds of the terrible past.
But the building is a bit eerie, to be honest.
And those dumped vans really do not make this place seem very inviting or really appealing to strollers.
As soon as you dared to step in, you will be welcomed by naked walls,
stripped corridors close to collapse and empty rooms with nothing but peeling paint.
Maybe you understand why we were a bit disappointed at the beginning.
But then we found what we were looking for.
A chapel with seats for dozens of people, and totally frozen in time.
What a contrast!
While the whole mansion was basically completely emptied out, this sacral place remained untouched.
Instead of vandalism, there are only signs of natural decay.
It is astonishing to see that after so many years of vacancy, the stained-glass window was still fully intact.
When you take a look at all those beautiful and elaborate details you can find in the whole room,
you would not think that this place has such a cruel and sinister past.
It was the insane Nazi doctrine that claimed the lives of way too many people.
In 1936, the Nazis took over the administration of the site.
During World War Two, the priest who turned this place into a mental hospital
even allowed the German Wehrmacht to set up a sickbay in parts of the building.
At first, sterilization of the patients was enforced.
There were beds for several hundred people in the 138 rooms of the structure.
But more space for wounded soldiers was demanded by the German Reich.
So, doctors started “Aktion T4”, the euthanasia program.
This means people with physical, mental and psychological disabilities were deported to death camps.
Around 2,000 to 3,000 former patients of this facility are reported missing until today.
All of them were killed by the Nazi regime -
either gassed or with the use of drugs.
Then, most of the patients were gone
and many soldiers with war injuries and nerve damages came to the sickbay.
But frighteningly the killing did not stop at all.
It is said that the euthanasia program was continued.
Some of the new victims had enforced mass murders themselves before,
and entrusted with confidential information.
It seems like a large-scale disposal.
The priest, however, managed to save the remaining patients
before the war was over and Nazi Germany defeated.
After World War Two, the mental hospital was renovated and started to operate again.
Until the early 1980s, patients were treated here.
Since then, the former palace has been sitting empty and falling apart.
And until this date, after almost four decades of vacancy,
there is nobody who dares to rescue the old premises.
And after all, why should you invest a huge amount of money in a place with such a dark history
located in the middle of nowhere?
So, this centuries-old castle is doomed to be a ruin.
It is the morning after.
We woke up in the overgrown palace gardens of our next destination.
In the light of the rising sun, one of Poland’s most fascinating castles emerged in front of us.
Getting up early is usually worth it.
And seeing this beautiful ruin reflecting in the water confirmed this.
Schloss Koppitz is a historic aristocratic estate located in the village of Kopice.
Less than 1,000 people are living here at the moment.
It feels like the extensive castle park with its idyllic lake is even bigger than the small town itself.
Unfortunately, the grounds are fenced off and guarded really well.
So, there is no way to get inside the crumbling building complex.
We were only enjoying the outside view.
This manor used to be the stamping ground for nobles from the whole continent.
For a long time, this was a center of culture.
But what is left today is only debris and ruins.
The history of this fallen castle resembles a crime novel.
From the former pompousness, only photos and memories are left today.
As usual, the beginnings of the estate date back to the Middle Ages.
During the following centuries, there were many different aristocratic occupiers.
Temporarily, it even belonged to one of the richest families in all of Prussia.
It seems like every new owner wanted to extend his new home a bit.
In the end, after many conversions, it looked like a real-life fairytale castle.
As fabulous was the history of the longstanding lady of the palace.
As a young child, she was adopted by a wealthy industrialist.
He died and she inherited his incredible fortune.
The rich young lady married a noble and since she was good with money,
she managed to multiply her wealth later.
This story is also known as the Silesian Cinderella.
Unfortunately, there is no happy ending.
The castle survived World War Two unscathed.
But the aristocratic owners had to escape before the USSR invaded the country.
They only took the most important things, so a fully furnished manor
with all its precious objects was now abandoned.
During its prime, the castle was full of valuables, there were many sculptures and a well-groomed garden.
But when you visit the premises today, you will search in vain for its former glory.
There is barely anything left of the castle.
No study room of the old count, no more books in the former library,
no ballroom, no chapel, no windows and not even a roof.
At least, there is the tower left but you can’t climb it because there are no stairs anymore as well.
After the war, the Red Army moved in here.
Probably some of the soldiers stole the smaller but valuable objects.
Later, the castle became a place where children spent their holidays.
But in 1958, there was a devastating fire that destroyed the entire building complex.
Only a very short time before that, there was a warehouse for agricultural products set up in here.
It is said that the responsible people were trading illegally behind the back of the authorities.
More and more crop disappeared.
You could interpret this as an act of sabotage against the young Polish state
which would have been punished with death.
So, when a check-in and stock-taking was announced, the castle flared up suddenly.
Also, the lake was drained, so there was no water which made it even harder to extinguish the fire.
The castle almost burned to the ground and was forgotten for many years.
This was a perfect time for poachers who now lumbered big trees completely undisturbed.
But after the end of the Cold War, it got even worse.
In the 90s, the castle was sold to a fraud.
Big promises were made but instead, he was plundering the ruin.
He just took away what was left behind.
And for years, he was fooling the authorities.
But also the promises of the following owners were nothing but hollow words.
One of them proclaimed to invest 100 million Euros in reconstruction measures
and turn the place into a German-Polish museum.
What an ambitious plan - but unfortunately, without any financial coverage.
No investor ever apologized for their false statements or justified their dubious decisions.
Until this date, the heritage-protected castle remains a ruin without future prospects.
Its revival was just a fairy-tale after all.
We now experienced enough abandoned castles.
Their crumbling appearances were different and fascinating all the time,
but their sad stories resembled each other.
We have learned a lot about Silesia’s history those last days.
But on our map, we noted several other interesting locations.
So, it was time to leave this part of Poland to explore the rest of the country and discover more undisclosed landmarks.
Our Poland road trip series is almost over now.
The whole adventure was made possible by you guys.
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So, at the end of March, which is in about 5 weeks we will start our biggest urbex adventure so far.
For one month, we will travel to Georgia and Armenia to produce the documentary.
We do not want to share all the info at the moment because we are still planning our road trip.
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Next time on Broken Window Theory:
During our Poland adventure we were exploring many grand abandoned powerhouses.
But so far, we only shared one of them with you.
In the fifth episode of our road trip series, we venture into the remains of former industry.
This place is quite impressive and yet, it is only a minor power plant.
It was abandoned but until today, it seems untouched and stuck in time.
It is always a pleasure to see forgotten sites free of any vandalism.
We also feature a second undisclosed landmark in that video.
This is a one-hundred-year-old synagogue.
But during the occupation by Nazi Germany in World War Two, the building was turned into a swimming hall.
Learn the full story in our upcoming episode.
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We will be back with our next video very soon.
Keep exploring!