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Wieś Orzech
On the boundary between Orzech and Świerklaniec, in a small copse among the fields, stands a brick tower from the 19th century. Despite appearances it is not the remnant of a medieval stronghold: the structure was built from the outset as a so-called folly, a decorative landscape feature imitating an old castle. Such a fashion was widespread across Europe in the Romantic era.
It was funded by Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, owner of extensive estates centred on Świerklaniec, where the family residence stood. The tower fitted into the designed landscape of the property and accompanied the hunts organised by the family. Today it is protected as evidence of a 19th-century architectural fashion.
It makes a target for a short, quiet walk along a field track: no tickets, no facilities, but the atmosphere of an abandoned monument. Fields and copses surround it, and the tower is best visited in dry weather, when the approach is not muddy.
