- To the castle
- 20 minutes on foot through the woods, uphill at the end; 5 minutes by car
- Parking
- free and private, at the house — you walk to the castle and leave the car behind
- Breakfast
- home-made and cooked fresh, vegetarian and vegan too; from 7:30 am, at weekends from 8:00 am
- Check-in
- from 2 pm; after 10 pm you check in yourself at the terminal in the building — your booking number is all you need
- Rooms
- eight: doubles, twins, a family room for four and the Junior Suite with a balcony
From our front door to the castle gate
Behind our house the street turns into woodland, and the woodland into the Książ Landscape Park — more than 3,000 hectares, protected since 1981. The path brings you to the castle gate in about 20 minutes, the last stretch uphill. On the way you pass the Książ Stud Farm (Stado Ogierów Książ); a quarter of an hour in the opposite direction lies the palm house. By car it is five minutes, but hardly anyone drives: the car stays at the house for free, while up at the castle it gets crowded in season and at weekends. You come back the same way, downhill. Wear walking shoes, not sandals: the path can be muddy after rain, and the castle terraces mean a lot of steps. If you would rather skip the climb, there is a bus four minutes from the house – where to get on and off is explained on the Książ Castle page.
State rooms, terraces, tunnels: how long it all takes
You go round the castle on your own with an audio guide (available in English) along a one-way route: about an hour and a half, with no group to wait for. Families can choose the family version of the audio guide, “Ścieżka rodzinna”, though that one is in Polish only. Our guide to Książ has more on the rooms and on wheelchair and pushchair access. There are fourteen terraces, among them the Rose Terrace, Princess Daisy's favourite. They are open from April to September and stay open longer only in good weather or for events. The tunnels, about half a kilometre of wartime passages, can only be visited with a guide (35–45 minutes, in Polish; visitors from abroad can get an audio guide at the ticket office), at the time printed on your ticket. The entrance is by the North Terrace, a quarter of an hour's walk from the gatehouse; the castle asks you to be there 15 minutes early and does not refund latecomers. Down below it is 6 to 12 °C: bring a jacket and wear flat shoes. Allow three to four hours for the lot. That leaves the afternoon for the horses at the stud farm or the palm house, and the evening for dinner in Szczawno-Zdrój — an hour's walk or a quarter of an hour by car — or in the centre of Wałbrzych, ten minutes by car.
Legends and lore
The Nazi gold train? They dug for it just down the road, in Szczawienko
Legend has it that early in 1945 an armoured train laden with gold and valuables left Wrocław and never reached Wałbrzych. It was supposedly hidden in a buried tunnel — in many versions, one under Książ. In 2015 two treasure hunters, Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter, claimed to know where it stood: at kilometre 65 of the Wrocław–Wałbrzych railway. Digging began in August 2016 in Szczawienko, our part of town, on ul. Uczniowska, right beside the tracks. Nothing turned up; experts from Kraków's AGH University had detected no sign of a train there, and to historians it remains a story without proof. New “leads” surface every few years, most recently in 2025. The tunnels beneath the castle are real, though — dug by forced labourers and prisoners of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.
Quiet evenings, breakfast on a plate
We are not inside the castle complex but twenty minutes away, in an old stone house at the edge of the forest: antiques, a library, eight rooms and no coach party under the window. Breakfast is cooked fresh and served on a plate, not out of a chafing dish. Families get a room for four with proper beds instead of a sofa bed, a cot is free, and pets are welcome if you let us know in advance. Book direct and you can settle all of this with us straight away, with no middleman.
Before you set off: tickets, children, the dog
Buy your ticket for the tunnels online, in advance: it is valid for a set day and time, and each group takes no more than 35 people. At present the castle ticket also covers the palm house: you visit one of them on the date your ticket is for, and the other within 12 months of that date — so with two nights you can spread them over two days. With small children: the tunnels are open to children aged 4 and over, and pushchairs have to be left wherever security staff tell you (a baby carrier worn on the front is fine). Your dog can come with you through the woods, but not into the castle, the tunnels or the palm house, nor onto the terraces or into the courtyard, unless it is an assistance dog — so take turns going in. Staying longer? Ask about the “Explore Wałbrzych” ticket: it covers the castle with its terraces, the palm house, Stara Kopalnia, the Porcelain Museum and the lookout tower in Sobieski Park, and you can visit each of them once within 12 months of purchase.
Flower Festival in May, Night Tour and Gardens of Light
During the majówka, Poland's long May weekend, the castle holds its Festival of Flowers and Art (in 2025 and 2026 it began as early as 30 April): floral arrangements in some forty rooms and, as the organisers themselves warn, enormous queues. Book your room well ahead for those days, buy your ticket online and walk over from us; dogs are not allowed into the ticketed part of the festival. The castle usually runs its Night Tour on Fridays or Saturdays: about an hour and a half with a guide, in Polish, for adults, sometimes in a family version; a torch is compulsory, though the one on your phone will do, and dates are published towards the end of the previous month. For the walk back after dark, take the car (it is five minutes) or at least a head torch, because the way leads through the woods. In winter the terraces are closed during the day, but in recent seasons they, and the palm house too, have been lit up in the evenings as the Gardens of Light (Ogrody Światła).
We deliberately leave out opening hours and prices, because they change through the year. Check the current ones on the castle's daytime visits page, buy tickets with a set entry time in its online ticket shop, and find festival and night-tour dates under Events.
