With its dark turrets and dramatic gaping windows, you’d be forgiven for thinking the castle nestled in the Polish countryside, called Zamek Łapalice by locals, dated back to the 14th or 15th century.
In fact, it was built less than 100 years ago – and was abandoned by its owner, the artist Piotr Kazimierczak in the 1980s after his ambitious plans for a sprawling estate were nipped in the bud by planning authorities.
Kazimierczak’s vision of a grand studio residence, replete with a swimming pool, ballroom, ramparts and towers representing the 12 apostles, would have loomed over a nearby village, but now locals of Łapalice are fated to living in the shadow of the half-finished, hollow structure.
After beginning construction in 1979, the Polish sculptor ran out of money to fund his creative vision. Coupled with a clampdown on the development’s unauthorised incursion onto someone else’s land, he gave up hope.
While concrete accounts of Kazimierczak’s ideas for the castle’s future are hard to come by, reports suggest that it would have included wood-panelled floors and ornate vaults in the Renaissance style.
It is also speculated that the artist substantially overshot his green-lit development area of 1,000-square metres, with the structure as it stands covering about six times the approved scale.
Why it was never knocked down is a mystery in itself – with some reports questioning whether the space could be used by the local council or whether Kazimierczak himself is still petitioning for permission to complete his dream home.
Today, however, the deceptively archaic castle has become popular with urban explorers looking to wander around eerie abandoned buildings.
Its graffiti-laden walls are a testament to its years of emptiness – and the persistence of trespassers, willing to scale the fencing and huge gate that block it off from public access.
The castle has also become a tourist attraction in its own right, with a TripAdvisor page and 4.5 rating from 46 reviews.
One visitor described it as “one of the best covert and unofficial tourist attractions in Poland”, recounting their experience of its “uneasy atmosphere, gaping windows and extravagant towers”.
Another dubbed it “a failed project in the middle of nowhere”. They added: “It is actually fantastic that [it wasn’t] completed. If finished, this would have been the most trashy and probably the largest example of kitsch in the country.
“[The] picturesque landscape around and the unfinished construction make you realise that you should not bite off more than you can chew.”
