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First impressions of SZYDLOW , 50km east of Jedrzejow, are less than promising. Perched atop a hill amid undulating Malopolska farmlands, this half-deserted rural backwater is certainly not a place to head for in search of action. What makes a visit here worthwhile, however, is the remnants of the fortified Gothic architectural complex built by King Kazimierz the Great in the mid-fourteenth century. Though the road takes you up around the top of the town, the principal entrance to the Stare Miasto is through the Brama Krakowska (Krakow Gate), a towering structure enhanced by the attic added in the late 1500s. Despite wartime devastation of the town, substantial sections of the fortifications, notably the walls, have survived essentially intact. Clambering around the chunky stone battlements, you sense that King Kazimierz, an indefatigable builder of castles, was a man who put security first. Certainly, the defences he raised here were enough to see Szydlow through the depredations and invasions that ruined many neighbouring towns in later centuries. A fair bit of the castle itself survives, too, notably a solid-looking tower that's now the town museum (May-Sept: Tues, Thurs-Sun 8am-3.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; Oct-April: Tues-Sun 8am-3.30pm 4zl), housing a low-key collection of local artefacts and historical finds. West across the wide, open square, stuck out on the far edge of the medieval complex is the synagogue , a large structure surrounded by heavy stone buttresses. One of the oldest synagogues in the country and built, according to local legend, at the instigation of Esterka, King Kazimierz's fabled Jewish mistress, the building is currently closed up and empty, waiting for someone to stump up the money to do something with it. Despite being torched by the Nazis in 1944, the Gothic parish church , north of the Rynek, retains a few elements of its original decoration, notably the tryptych on the main altar. Wszystkich Swietych (All Saints' Church), marooned outside the main city walls across the road from the Krakow Gate, fared little better, though you can still see sections of the original Gothic polychromy on the walls. Buses serving Kielce and Jedrzejow run from the stop on the main square, There's nowhere decent to stay in town, and eating opportunities are limited to the basic cafe and snack-bar places on the square.
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