Brama Wybrańców, Pszczyna

The Gate of the Chosen, also known as the "Warta" - was built in 1687, the oldest part of the Pszczyna castle complex preserved in an unchanged form to this day. Situated in the south-western part of the square, it was the main entrance to the castle. It was built by the builder Consilio Milius, commissioned by the then owner of the castle, Baltazar Promnitz, in the place of the former, 15th-century guardhouse with a drawbridge over the moat. It contained rooms for the castle guards. The soldiers for the guard were chosen by the Promnitzes from among the peasants from their estates and were called "the chosen ones". The Pszczyna Chosen Men guarded the castle until 1875.

It is a brick, plastered, one-story building with a south-facing wing connecting it with an annex and with a round tower covered with a tent roof at the southeastern corner. The triple-pitched roof is covered with tiles. The front elevation is seven-axial. On the axis there is a passage gate with a cruciform vault and a rusticated stone portal closed in a semicircle. The interior layout is partly single-, partly double-track. Inside the room by the tower there is a barrel vault with lunettes; in the room on the other side of the hallway, which was divided in more recent times, there is a beamed ceiling supported on profiled pine wood with rosettes.

A stone, arched bridge over the former moat, once surrounding the entire castle, leads to the gate. Above the portal, the slope of the tiled roof is interrupted by an ornamental gable, flanked with pilasters and flat escutcheons, on which stone plates with the coats of arms of the owners of Pszczyna - Baltazar Promnitz and Emilia Agnieszka Saska - are placed. A stone tablet with the date of the gate's construction hidden in the Latin inscription was built into the top.

The inscription says: OMNIPOTENS COELI, TERRAE PELAGIQVE CREATOR EXCVBIIS POSTES FVLCIAT HOSCE SVIS, which means: Almighty Heaven, Earth, Sea Creator let him guard this gate with his guard.

Today the Gate of Chosen Ones houses a café and the Tourist Information Office.

There used to be a number of other buildings next to the gate, on the south side of the castle, along the moat, on the line of the former Gothic castle wall, including the ducal brewery, malt house and bakery. However, all these buildings were demolished in the 19th century.