Castle in Stara Kamienica, A palace in Poland

Castle in Stara Kamienica is a palace with medieval origins built of stone and surrounded by vegetation. The site features remaining walls, a large round tower, and an entrance with stone arches, with the tower being the tallest structure still standing.

First mentioned in the late 1200s, the castle was acquired by the Schoff family in the late 1300s. The structure was rebuilt in Renaissance style in the 1500s, but major fires in 1616 and 1758 destroyed large portions and it was not rebuilt afterward.

The Schaffgotsch family held Altkemnitz from the 13th century; a 16th-century forgery claimed Bolesław II Rogatka granted it to castellan Siboto Scof in 1242, though the family only acquired it in the later 14th century. Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch, executed in 1635 as Wallenstein's accomplice, lost the estate to the Pálffy, then to Count Zierotin in 1670. The Herkulestor gate of 1705 carries the Zierotin and Lilgenau coats of arms.

The castle area is entered from the village street through a gate in the stone walls. A four-bay stone bridge leads to the castle plateau, where the vaulted cellars and the tower ruin, now covered with a new hipped roof, can be visited. The site is a permanent ruin open for sightseeing.

The 1705 Herkules Gate survives in the perimeter wall, its two heraldic shields showing the Zierotin family on the left and the Freiherren von Lilgenau on the right. The gate is named after Hercules, a hint at the classical tastes of the owners who laid out the baroque garden.