The city of Plock (Płock) was the first capital of the Mazovia province and for a short period, it was even Poland’s capital. It’s one of the oldest towns in Poland with 1,000 years of history. Today Plock is a significant center of the oil industry.

Famous for possessing the oldest Polish high school, the oldest museum, the sarcophagus of two of Poland’s rulers, and the Wisla Plock handball and football teams, it still attracts many tourists visiting Mazovia.

Plan your trip to Plock Poland with this complete Plock Travel Guide!

Plock obtained municipal rights in 1237 but existed before this as a fortified burg as early as the 10th century. In the beginning, it was a seat of Mazovian bishops. During the years 1079-1138, Plock became the capital of Poland.

After the death of Boleslaus III, the dukes of Mazovia established their seats in the city. Through the many decades that followed, Lithuanians and Ruthenians attacked and burned Plock several times. But when Casimir the Great took control over the city in 1351 it gained a new Gothic castle, a parish church, and new fortifications. During the 15th century, Plock was one of the most important supply bases in the war against the Teutonic Knights.

Wars, Fires and Epidemics

The following centuries brought fires and epidemics that weakened the city, especially from the Swedes in the 17th – 18th century, the French in the 19th century, and the Russian and German armies that robbed and destroyed it until the end of World War II.

The last 100 years have been a time for the city to regain its full strength. The cultural activity, industrial development, and rapid changes towards modernity with respect for history and tradition make today’s Plock a leading region city and an exciting place for tourists.

The huge brick Cathedral in Płock (also known as the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia) contains the graves of two Polish monarchs. The church has two large identical towers at the front and a large dome tower at the rear. The original cathedral, built in 1129 burnt down in 1530.

It was restored in 1903 and had new doors added in the 1980s. You can visit it during the daytime as the doors are open, and if you are keen to attend a mass here, the notice board at the front has all the details you need. It’s a Roman Catholic Church.

Address: Tumska 1

Tumskie Hill, more than 40 meters above the extensive valley of the Vistula River (Wisła), is an advanced, vast point scarp, creating a place convenient for settlement—the oldest traces of the settlement date back to the period of the Lusatian Culture. The hill was not inhabited after that.

Plock’s development involves the creation of foundations of the state of the first Piasts. The stronghold surrounded by earth embankment in the north emerged during the reign of Mieszko I. In the first half of the 11th century, the defensive fortifications covered the entire hill.

Already at that time, at the place of the future cathedral, there was a church and a small stone rotunda nearby. Plock was one of the “stations” of Boleslaus Chrobry, who traveled around his state. Probably it’s from where St. Bruno of Kwerfurt set out to Prussia with his last Christianization mission.

Capital of the Mazovian Episcopate

From the second half of the 11th century, the city gained importance. In 1075 it became the capital of the Mazovian episcopate and the seat of the rulers of Poland. Residences emerged for the bishop, for the duke, his family, and many courtiers. Stone buildings emerged as well. After a devastating invasion of the Pomeranians in 1126, when an outstanding organizer and patron of the arts, Alexander of Malonne became the bishop, construction of a new cathedral began.

Romanesque temple

An impressive Romanesque temple from granite masonry emerged, the largest building in Poland. Consecrated in 1144, in the next decade, it obtained decorated doors of bronze from Magdeburg. Currently, their faithful copy is on the porch. In the 13th century, they were probably robbed during one of the Lithuanian-Russian invasions and brought to Veliky Novgorod.

A stone mansion also emerged. A several-floor residential tower, which relics were the basis for the future castle Donjon. The great temple and seat of the bishop much improved the importance of the city when, after division into provinces, it was nothing more than the capital of the Dukes of Mazovia.

End of the Golden Century

The first period of “the golden century” ended in the early 13th century with intensified attacks of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Lithuanians. Within this century the town was conquered and burnt five times. In the late 13th century, Duke Boleslaus II started erecting defensive walls at the place of embankments. It saved the castle three times against the armies of Władysław the Short, Czechs, and Teutonic knights.

A new Gothic mansion emerged at the wall from the side of the Vistula River as well. When Duke Boleslaus III deceased without descendants, Plock passed for 20 years under the reign of King Kazimierz the Great. At that time, defensive walls surrounded the town, and the castle hill gained a second ring of gigantic walls with turrets and a high gate tower (Noblemen’s Tower), the symbol of royal authority. In the next century, more convenient access to the castle appeared through a new double gate in the walls next to the tower. The latter, over time, began to serve as a prison.

Finally, John I Albert incorporated the kingdom into the Crown in 1495. The castle lost much of the former splendor of the duke’s residence. Royal governors managed it until the partitions. Its area housed many wooden farm buildings and small houses for officials and lower-level cathedral clergy. At least from the 15th century, the episcopal curia and houses of canons were near today’s Narutowicza Square.

Destruction and Reconstruction

In 1530, a thunderstorm caused a great fire and damage to the cathedral. Reconstruction began but soon another disaster occurred. Despite repair works in the castle, conducted from 1517, because of washout and sliding of the scarp, “the most beautiful part of the castle along with the hill tumbled down to the Vistula River”. In such words, bishop Krzycki wrote to Queen Bona, who, at that time, received from Sigismund the Old the Plock land in annuity.

The remnants were the former, grand Gothic mansion of the Dukes of Mazovia between the walls, connected through galleries with an Italian-style tenement house with a viewing terrace over the Vistula River. Apart from Bona, Queen Ann Jagiellon was a frequent guest for years. Kings also stayed there for a short period: Sigismund August, Sigismund Vase, Władysław IV, and Jan Kazimierz.

Wars with Sweden brought about breathtaking effects. During “the Swedish Deluge” the castle and town were seized, robbed, and devastated twice. in 1705, combats between Russians with Swedes in the castle resulted in ruined buildings and walls. Walls being gradually dismantled from the 1840s remained in sizable fragments from the side of the town till the early 19th century.

The St. Adalbert’s Church was given a rich early Baroque decor with marble, a monumental main altar, and a portal, designed by the royal architect, Mateo Castello. Wars with Sweden did not spare the abbey, either. It suffered particularly great losses in 1705 when it was completely robbed, and the library and the archive burnt down. In 1781, the Benedictine monks moved to Pultusk.

The altar moved to the parish church, and the portal to Bądków Kościelny. After the January Uprising, Russian authorities took the buildings over. They established a state female secondary school there, which operated until World War 1. In the inter-war period, it housed a music school for organists and private apartments.

Mazovian Museum

In the 1960s, after a thorough refurbishment and adaptation, the Mazovian Museum came here and opened to the public in 1973. Since 2005, the museum has been in an Art Nouveau tenement house at 8 Tumska Street. After another refurbishment, the former Benedictine abbey, along with a small building next to the cathedral, erected in 1903 for museum purposes, became the Diocesan Museum.

Starting from the 16th century, the area being property of the church increased. Finally, the whole area of the castle hill became the property of the bishop. The remnants of the old medieval castle are only the Clock Tower – a former turret, raised and reconstructed about in 1492 into a cathedral bell tower, in the late 17th century covered with a Baroque cupola, and the Noblemen’s Tower. A part of the wall to which the wing of the Benedictine monastery was adjacent is also still visible. In the 1820’s, the area of the hill became a park planted with horse chestnuts.

The second important building on Tumskie Hill is a former Benedictine abbey. It dates back to the beginning of the Christianization of Mazovia. in the 11th century. The Benedictines owned St. Laurent’s Church, and in the 12th century, they created a new St. Adalbert’s abbey.

They created also the first cathedral chapter of the Plock diocese, established in 1075. In 1538, they received from King Sigismund the Old the area with the oldest buildings of the town from the 12th century.

They erected a new abbey with a late-Gothic church next to the Noblemen’s Tower as well as monastery buildings along the defensive wall. In the early 17th century, a wing between the church and the Clock Tower closed the yard.