Polish mayor offers town’s castle to Elon Musk as European base

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The mayor of a small Polish town has made an ambitious pitch to Elon Musk, proposing that the billionaire acquire a historic castle as his base in Europe.

Recent media reports have suggested that Musk – currently ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest man, with a $421 billion fortune – has been considering buying a castle in Italy. But Piotr Bujak, the mayor of Głogówek, a town of 6,000 in southern Poland, says he can “offer a much better location”.

“Yesterday, the media was abuzz with the news that Elon Musk is looking for a castle in Europe to become the coordinating centre for the development of his rapidly expanding companies on the Old Continent,” wrote Bujak in posts on social media, including the X platform owned by Musk.

“Although he is focusing on Italy for now, today we decided to bravely offer him a much better location – the municipality of Głogówek,” he continued, adding that an email extolling the virtues of the town’s castle has been sent to Musk’s team.

Głogówek’s castle (pictured above), which is owned by the municipality, dates back to the Middle Ages. It belonged to the Opole Piasts, a local line of Poland’s first ruling dynasty, until the early 16th century, after which it served as a residence of the Oppersdorffs, a Silesian noble family.

Among the castle’s notable guests were Polish king John II Casimir Vasa in 1655 and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who stayed there in 1806 while fleeing Napoleonic troops, reports Zabytek.pl, a website dedicated to Poland’s historical sites run by the National Heritage Institute

In 1945, the last of the Oppersdorffs left the castle, which has since had several owners and served various functions: a youth hostel, regional museum, art gallery and community centre.

Its architectural style, shaped by numerous reconstructions, is described as Mannerist. However, the castle has fallen into a state of disrepair and requires significant investment – estimated at over 100 million zloty (€23.4 million) – that the local authorities cannot afford.

Italian media have reported that Musk, the businessman behind SpaceX and Tesla, is looking to buy a castle in the country to act as his European base.

Bujak, however, argues that Głogówek offers similar charms. He cited Polish writer Rafał Urban, who praised the surrounding area as “a veritable paradise” similar to northern Italy. Bujak highlighted the town’s lavender fields, likening them to those in Tuscany.

The mayor also emphasised that Głogówek has advantages of its own that make it a perfect base, including proximity to two airports and six European capitals, with which the region is connected by a network of motorways.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Sławomir Milejski / wikimedia.org (under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.