Lordship of Hummel: A Medieval Territory and Castle District in Poland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Prussia
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
The Lordship of Hummel was a historical territory in present-day Poland, around Lewin Kłodzki, that developed in the medieval period and was formally dissolved in 1598. Centered on Hummel Castle, it occupied the western part of Kłodzko Land and became part of the County of Kłodzko in 1459. Its lands lay along the natural boundary between the Kłodzko Basin and Bohemia, at a watershed dividing rivers flowing toward the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.
Early territory and medieval lords
In the tenth century, the territory belonged to the Slavník dynasty, an earlier Bohemian princely family whose lands were absorbed by the Přemyslids in 995. The Přemyslids were the medieval ruling dynasty of Bohemia. The early lordship occupied the Bystrzyca Dusznicka watershed, the area of Duszniki Zdrój, and surrounding villages. Ecclesiastically, it belonged to the Deanery of Kłodzko, an ecclesiastical district within the Diocese of Prague.
The Hummel Pass opened the territory toward Bohemia. The first known holder was Titzko, also called Thyczko, of Pannwitz, who was recorded in 1346. His sons sold Hummel in 1392 to Dietrich of Janowitz, who joined it to the adjoining Lordship of Náchod.
In 1412, Hummel passed to Henry of Lažany. Two years later, Henry exchanged Hummel and Náchod with Boček II of Poděbrady for the town and lordship of Bechyně in southern Bohemia. Boček died in 1417, and his son Viktorin, a committed Utraquist, died in 1427. The Utraquists were a Hussite movement that supported communion for laypeople in both bread and wine. Although Viktorin’s seven-year-old son, the future King George of Poděbrady, was the lawful heir, the Taborites seized Hummel Castle in 1427.
Hussite control and the Poděbrady dynasty
During the Hussite Wars, the Taborites used the castle as a base for incursions into Kłodzko Land and Silesia. The Taborites were the more radical Hussite faction, organized for both political and military action. Jan Holý, also known as Holec, Lord of Nemošice, and Mikuláš Trčka of Lípa jointly administered the lordship. In 1440, the Taborite military leader and robber knight Jan Kolda of Žampach captured Hummel.
Hummel belonged to Hynek Krušina of Lichtenburg from 1444 to 1454. He also held Kłodzko Land as a pledge-holder, meaning that he controlled territorial rights as security for a financial obligation. After his death in 1454, the lordship returned to George of Poděbrady. King Ladislaus the Posthumous had already confirmed George’s possession on 29 July 1453, and George appointed Václav Holý as burgrave, the official responsible for administering and defending a castle or castle district.
After George became King of Bohemia, he transferred Hummel and Náchod to his sons Boček and Viktorin in 1458. Following George’s death in 1471, the family possessions were divided. Hummel, Náchod, and the County of Kłodzko went to his third-born son, Henry the Elder. Václav Holub of Provuzy is recorded as Hummel’s burgrave in 1470.
Expansion and changing feudal control
In 1477, Henry the Elder enlarged Hummel westward by adding the parishes of Lewin and Tscherbeney, together with the villages of Schlaney and Brzesowie. This new territory lay outside the Kłodzko Basin, within the Bohemian Basin, and had previously been administered through Náchod and ecclesiastically through the Deanery of Dobruška. The enlargement moved the boundary between Kłodzko Land and Bohemia westward and was intended to strengthen Henry’s influence and prestige as Count of Kłodzko.
That same year, Henry granted Hummel as a fief to the Saxon nobleman Hildebrand of Kauffung, son of Kunz of Kauffungen. The original eastern territory later became known as the “German side,” while the western additions were called the “Bohemian side.” The Hussite Wars had left the area largely depopulated, and German-speaking settlers were brought into the Bohemian side as well.
Under Sigismund of Kauffung, Hummel Castle became a hideout for robber knights. The lordship then passed to Ulrich of Hardegg in 1513, Johann of Pernstein in 1541, and, by inheritance, to Johann’s son Vratislav of Pernstein in 1548.
Final dissolution and later territorial changes
In 1549, Ernst of Bavaria, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty and pledge-holder of Kłodzko County, acquired Hummel as a separately granted fief. On 10 December that year, he granted it to his son Eustach, who had been ennobled by Emperor Charles V in 1547 as Eustach of Landfried and legitimized by Pope Julius III in 1550 as the noble descendant of Duke Ernst.
After Ernst of Bavaria died, Eustach sold Hummel in 1560 to Ernst Gelhorn of and at Alten Greckau and Roge. In 1561, Hummel reverted as an escheated fief to the Bohemian ruler. An escheated fief was a feudal holding that returned to its superior lord when its recognized tenure ended or became legally forfeit. Hummel was pledged to Rudolf of Stubenberg in 1590 and to the town of Reinerz in 1595.
The lordship was dissolved in 1598. Rudolf of Stubenberg acquired the land belonging to the castle, while most villages passed to the Bohemian Chamber, the royal body that managed the Bohemian ruler’s assets. Passendorf, with the Brunnkress colony, and Nauseney were sold to Wünschelburg in 1601. Schlaney and part of neighboring Brzesowie were acquired by Náchod in the same year.
Further divisions followed in the seventeenth century. In 1684, Emperor Leopold I sold Gellenau, Tanz, Sackisch, Tassau, Järker, Kleingeorgsdorf, and Großgeorgsdorf to Kaspar Josef of Alten, who incorporated them into the new Gellenau estate. Johann Isaias of Hartig acquired Keulendorf, Dörnikau with the Kessel colony, Hallatsch, Jauernig, Löschney, Nerbotin, and Tschischney for the Lordship of Rückers. On 20 December 1684, Reinerz acquired Hermsdorf and Roms, while Lewin acquired Krzischney and Kuttel.
By the mid-sixteenth century, Deutsch-Tscherbeney, Straußeney, Jakobowitz, and the later spa of Kudowa had been separated from Hummel to form the Lordship of Tscherbeney. A document confirmed by King Ferdinand I of Bohemia on 1 December 1551 states that Johann of Pernstein had granted these villages to Heinrich Přepyšsky of Richemberg. After the First Silesian War in 1742, and definitively after the Treaty of Hubertusburg in 1763, the former Hummel territory passed with Kłodzko County to Prussia. From the mid-nineteenth century, villages along the Prussian-Bohemian frontier became known as the Bohemian Corner.
Remains
Hummel Castle stood on a conical mountain above the Bystrzyca Dusznicka valley, about 3 kilometers west of Duszniki Zdrój. The ruins occupy Mount Gomoła at approximately 733 meters above sea level, in the Lewin Hills above the Polskie Wrota Pass. From this position, the castle controlled the Hummel Pass and the route from Prague through the pass to Kłodzko and, beyond Wartha, to Wrocław. This route was known as the Poland Route or King’s Route, while an earlier branch of the Amber Road, a network of long-distance European trade routes, also crossed the Polskie Wrota Pass.
Fortifications and surviving structures
Castle enclosure
A wooden fortified settlement existed at the pass in the eleventh century. The masonry castle was built either in the late thirteenth century or during the fourteenth century. Its principal structure was a cylindrical stone keep, or main fortified tower, approximately 30 meters high. A curtain wall, the defensive wall enclosing the castle grounds, surrounded an irregular courtyard that was roughly rectangular, about 45 meters long and 18 meters wide. The tower stood centrally within the enclosure.
Ruins and archaeological evidence
After 1560, the castle was uninhabited and gradually fell into ruin. Today, the surviving fabric consists of part of the tower, a section of the outer wall several meters long, and traces of a dry moat, a defensive ditch without water. Archaeological investigations took place in 1810 and 1962, producing finds that included pottery fragments.
Historical depiction and later landscape
During a journey from Neuburg an der Donau to Kraków in 1536, Count Palatine Otto Henry had the castle sketched. The drawing is the only surviving realistic depiction of Hummel Castle from before its destruction. In 1788 and 1789, an avenue, an arbor, and benches were installed among the ruins for visitors and spa guests from nearby Duszniki Zdrój.
