Told from Above · a Shramko 360 series
Author: Andrii ShramkoCastle Hill and Długa Street, Bydgoszcz — a guided 360° flight
- 7 min
- 360° · 8K
- Open captions
- Online since 8 October 2026
Where the Church of St Andrew Bobola stands today, the castle of Casimir the Great stood until 1656.
About the film
In the nineteenth century, bricks from the castle ruins went mainly into the townhouses on Długa Street. In this film I fly over Castle Hill, Kościeleckich Square and Długa Street.
The guide tells, among other things, why Podwale and Magdzińskiego streets were once called Frog Street, how a king pawned the castle to pay off a debt, and how the fortress was blown up. In 1910 a hoard of 210 tenth-century coins was dug up on Zbożowy Rynek, the Grain Market.
If you are ever in Bydgoszcz, walk along Długa Street: these townhouses contain bricks from a royal castle.
Places in the film
- Castle Hill Map
- St Andrew Bobola Church Map
- Kościeleckich Square Map
- Długa Street Map
- Zbożowy Rynek (Grain Market) Map
The guide's full text (English)
A king's castle once stood where this church stands. Saint Andrew Bobola's, the red-brick tower with the green spire, rose on the levelled castle island, where the castle of King Casimir the Third stood until 1656 before sinking into ruin.
Frogs gave this corner of town an old street name. In old-Polish times Podwale and Magdzińskiego Street below us were known by exactly the same name, platea dicta Żabia, Frog Street.
Treasure has come out of the ground below us. On Zbożowy Rynek, the Grain Market, near where the early stronghold's settlement is thought to have stood, a hoard of 210 tenth-century coins was dug up in 1910.
Where did the castle go? Partly into the street below us. In the nineteenth century its brick went into many buildings, above all the tenements of Długa, and the last ruins came down in 1895.
Długa, the street under us now, has a habit of giving up pieces of older towns whenever it is dug up, and the next find is one that people still walk on.
Even the rails were recycled here. When Długa below us was dug up for roadworks, workers found tram tracks from 1957 and 1958 and set them into the cobbled surface the street got back after many years.
How many names can a square wear? This one was Hann von Weyhern Platz, after a Prussian cavalry general, then Plac Kościeleckich, the general's again, Plac Kościeleckich once more, and reportedly, for a few years, October Revolution Square.
Plac Kościeleckich is the Kościeleckis' square, and they were a king's creditors. In 1441 King Władysław Warneńczyk pawned the castle here to cover a debt, and from then on its royal governors came from that family.
Before the castle was pawned, it saw a siege: the Teutonic Knights held it, and Władysław Jagiełło, King of Poland, brought his army here to take it back from them.
Right here, Władysław Jagiełło made peace with the Teutonic Knights, for a while: he stormed the castle back in eight days and signed a truce with their Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen, to last until the following June.
How did the castle end? With a bang. In October 1656 Polish troops stormed it again, the Swedish garrison fought hard, and the fortress was blown up, taking the living wings and the bastions around the hill with it.
By now the royal castle had been fought over, pawned to its governors and finally blown up, and what the wars had left of it was about to be carted off, stone by stone, and put to ordinary uses.
Przy Zamczysku, the lane behind us, swapped between German and Polish names. Its name means By the Castle Ruins, but it began as Wiesestraße, and in the war years it was Schloßstraße, Castle Street, until the Polish name returned.
Before the letters came the hussars. Poczta Główna, the Main Post Office, the red-brick block with a sharp turret, stands where barracks were ordered for a squadron of hussars under General Małachowski.
Back at Saint Andrew Bobola's, the altar looks to Vilnius. The first Jesuits after the war, Father Władysław Wantuchowski and a fellow priest, both linked to Vilnius, set a copy of its Ostra Brama Madonna over the main altar.
Its classrooms once heard Polish and German side by side. Instytut Geografii, the geography institute, the brick block with the stepped gable, took in the Father Piramowicz school, while a German evangelical school kept a wing of it until 1930.
A procession through Bydgoszcz ended on the church steps with a service of atonement, handing the Protestant church to the Jesuits. Klasztor Ojców Jezuitów, their green-roofed house below us, was founded by Primate Hlond's decree of 1946.
This school building had a monastery for a neighbour. Wydział Rolnictwa, the agriculture faculty, the brick house behind the square, was raised from 1867 to 1872 for a flourishing evangelical seminary, next to the rebuilt monastery.
An industrialist and a socialist lent their names to Stary Port, the embankment street here. In the first half of the last century it honoured Herman Franke, honorary citizen of Bydgoszcz, and under communism the socialist Julian Marchlewski.
Politicians wrote the rules for this façade. Back at Poczta Główna, the post office with the sharp turret, Prussian parliament rules dictated the design, from neo-Gothic brick, counted a Prussian national style, to the use of rooms and courtyards.
No bridge in the country was built this way before. Most Bernardyński w Bydgoszczy, the Bernardine Bridge with tram tracks, rose from a moving scaffold, and its designer Maksymilian Wolff reportedly won second prize for it.
Jagiellońska, the street beyond, kept changing its name: from Wilhelmstraße to Jagiellońska and on to Hermann Göring Straße, back to Jagiellońska, and for a few years to Generalissimus Stalin Street.
Pałac Młodzieży lost its patron too: it bore Janek Krasicki's name only from 1977 to 1990.
How the film was made
8K (7680×3840), 60 fps. Open captions in English, burned into the picture: three copies around the view, one next to the place being described. Narration: a synthetic voice in English.
The guide's facts come from:
Back to all filmsFor the cityFilms for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers
Andrii Shramko
Engineer and filmmaker, living in Bydgoszcz. I have been filming 360° in motion since 2015.