Kraslice Castle: A Medieval Defensive Watch Post in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Kraslice Castle was a small medieval defensive and watch post above Kraslice in Czechia, constructed in the fourteenth century on a difficult-to-reach hilltop. Its early history is uncertain. It was probably founded before 1272, perhaps by Přemysl Otakar II, the thirteenth-century king of Bohemia whose reign expanded royal authority and territory in Central Europe, and granted as a fief, land or property held in return for service, to Henry the Elder of Plauen.
Origins and early ownership
A charter said to have been issued in Prague on 15 July 1272 describes Přemysl Otakar II granting “Greklis Castle” to Henry the Elder of Plauen. The document was later identified as a forgery made for Henry II of Plauen between 1465 and 1480. Even so, it preserves a claim that a castle or fortified residence had been completed by that time. Archaeological finds place the castle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while the description of Kraslice in 1370 as a town under Nový hrad has led to the possibility that the castle was established during the second half of the fourteenth century. The Plauen family held Kraslice until 1370.
Conflicts and changing lords
King Wenceslas IV, who ruled Bohemia and was also Holy Roman Emperor in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, pledged the castle to the Raitenbach family. After the family rebelled against him, an army from Cheb captured the stronghold in 1412, although the Raitenbachs later regained it.
The Plauen family held the castle again from 1448. During the wars associated with George of Poděbrady, a fifteenth-century Bohemian king whose reign was marked by conflicts with Catholic nobles and political opponents, Henry II of Plauen ordered Kraslice Castle to be burned. The family later recovered the property and retained it, with interruptions, until 1519.
Abandonment and protection
In 1519 the castle was pledged to Wenceslas Elpognar of Šenfeld. His brother Hanuš later acquired it by an unknown process, after which Hanuš Pluh of Rabštejn became its owner. The Schlick family acquired Kraslice Castle in 1527, during whose tenure it was probably abandoned. The castle ceased to exist as a functioning stronghold in the sixteenth century and has been protected as a cultural monument since 1963.
Remains
Hilltop enclosure
Kraslice Castle occupied a promontory on Hradiště hill, at an elevation of 715 metres above the confluence of the Svatava and Stříbrný streams. Its small oval enclosure measured about 14 by 7 metres, a compact form consistent with its defensive and watch-post function. Only limited remains survive, chiefly a short section of wall and a small semicircular bastion, a projecting defensive structure, on the southern side.
