Korybut Castle: A Ruined Medieval Castle in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Korybut Castle, also known as Koberštejn, is a ruined castle in Czechia near Rejvíz in the Jeseník District. Built in the late thirteenth century, it stood beneath Zámecký vrch at about 912 metres above sea level and helped control routes and frontier lands in Czech Silesia.
Foundation and frontier role
The castle’s founder is unknown. Possibilities include an Opava prince, a Wrocław prince, and the Wrocław bishop. The most likely candidate is Bolko II of Świdnica, a fourteenth-century Silesian prince of the Piast dynasty. He may have established Koberštejn as a counterweight to nearby Quinburk, a Moravian castle.
Koberštejn apparently guarded the regional route between Zlaté Hory and Vrbno from the direction of the Wrocław bishops’ lands. It also protected the southern boundary of the Nysa Principality, a territorial principality associated with the bishops of Wrocław, as well as the trading route through the Černá Opava valley and the gold mines around Zlaté Hory.
Opava rule and decline
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the castle passed to the Opava princes. During the rule of Mikuláš II of Opava, a medieval ruler of the Opava branch of the Přemyslid dynasty, it was probably rebuilt. The work may have raised the palace, added a stair structure to the tower, and completely reconstructed the outer bailey, the outer part of a castle.
Koberštejn ceased to fulfil its original function sometime after 1400 and no later than the middle of the fifteenth century. Its decline may have taken place during the conflicts surrounding Matthias Corvinus’s struggle for the Bohemian crown. Later tradition holds that robber knights occupied the abandoned castle from the sixteenth into the seventeenth century, possibly until the early eighteenth century. The first written reference dates from 1687, when the castle was described as deserted. Although its name does not appear in surviving medieval written records, it continued in local tradition.
Remains
Korybut Castle occupied an area of approximately 85 by 100 metres and developed in two main building phases around a rocky core. Part of the complex stood on a nearby rock, while two ditches and accompanying earthen ramparts enclosed the site. The ramparts may have supported a palisade or another wooden fence.
First castle phase
Passage tower and inner core
The first phase centred on a high stone passage tower. Its ground-floor passage was an unusual solution for the restricted building site, while access to the tower itself was provided from an upper floor. The tower probably had three storeys, an original diameter of about 10 metres, and a square interior.
Behind the tower, a walled inner core occupied the rock. It contained a small courtyard and a residential building or palace. The first ditch measured approximately 13 to 28 metres across and 4 to 10 metres deep, reinforcing the enclosure around the central buildings.
Fourteenth-century rebuilding
Expanded defenses and service buildings
During the probable fourteenth-century rebuilding, the tower received a stair structure and the palace was probably raised. A stone wall was added to the second rampart, with a round tower or bastion, a projecting defensive tower or platform, and a gate at the rampart’s highest point. Service buildings were also added in the courtyard.
Only part of the stone tower and fragments of the enclosing walls survive. The remaining section of the tower is about 9 metres high. The wider arrangement of the castle cannot now be established with certainty, although the surrounding ditch and the position of some structures on the nearby rock remain identifiable.
Rocky setting
Lookout rock
A stone lookout on the rock behind the ruins overlooks Starý Rejvíz and the surrounding mountains. In clear conditions, the Polish landscape is also visible. The rocks are formed from slate intergrown with quartz and reach heights of up to 25 metres.
