From castellan's seat to dower castle
The site has a long history. In the 12th century a Slavic castellan had his wooden residence here, and around 1300 the Pomeranian dukes of the Szczecin-Wolgast line built a castle on the same spot. It was known as the dower castle because widowed duchesses lived there: for 15 years Anna Maria of Brandenburg, widow of Barnim XII, who died in 1603; Anna of Brunswick in the early 17th century; and from 1623 until her death in 1636 Sophia of Saxony.
The castle was remodelled in 1622, but in 1628 it burned down in the town fire together with the neighbouring Cistercian convent. In the second half of the 17th century, when traces of the Duchy of Pomerania were being erased, both buildings were demolished; only the cellars survived.
The von Below manor
Around 1800 the von Below family built a manor house here. Its walls do not exactly follow the castle foundations – the original outline of the castle and its chapel is marked out in Gothic brick on the ground around the building. During the Second World War the German police or the Gestapo were based here; among those held was an American pilot whose aircraft had crashed on the nearby Rów peninsula. After the war the municipal services company ran a joinery workshop in the building for many years.
Restoration
Restoration, funded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Wolin municipality, began in April 2009. By December that year the open shell was complete; from August 2012 the building was closed in, accompanied by archaeological investigations. In the third stage the interior was finished and the surroundings landscaped. The manor was opened on 20 December 2012.
Gallery
