Landek Castle: A Medieval Border Fortress 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, Kingdom of Bohemia
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Landek Castle is a medieval castle in Czechia, in present-day Ostrava, built in the mid-thirteenth century by Ottokar II Přemysl, a ruler of the Přemyslid dynasty who became King of Bohemia in 1253. It stood on a hill that had earlier held a fortified Slavic settlement of the Golensizi. The castle monitored the border with the neighboring Piast Duchy of Teschen, opposite the Polish castle of Ostravia.
Foundation and administrative role
In 1269, Ottokar II transferred Landek Castle and the Land of Troppau to his illegitimate son, Duke Nicholas I. Nicholas II succeeded him in 1318. After Nicholas II acquired the former Piast Duchy of Ratibor through marriage in 1337, the territory became known as the Duchy of Troppau-Ratibor.
Landek also served as the seat of a castellan, an official responsible for administering and defending a castle and its surrounding district. The castellan received the castle and associated landed property as a fief, meaning a holding granted by a superior ruler in return for service or allegiance. Siegfried von Baruth was the first documented owner of Landek Castle and its lordship in 1303. The lordship included the town of Hultschin.
The castle was first named in a border treaty dated 2 August 1297, concluded between Theoderic of Neuhaus, Bishop of Olomouc, and Duke Mesko I of Teschen. When the Duchy of Teschen came under the feudal authority of the Bohemian Crown in 1348, Landek no longer had the same importance as a border stronghold. In 1359, Nicholas II secured a life annuity of 4,000 marks for his third wife, Jutta von Falkenberg, against Landek Castle and the town of Leobschütz.
Division, damage, and destruction
During the 1377 division of the Duchy of Troppau, Wenceslas I and his younger brother Přemysl I received the southeastern part, including Troppau, Leobschütz, Landek Castle, and Grätz. After Wenceslas died in 1381, Přemysl inherited his share. Debts left by their father then forced him to pledge Landek Castle to Duke Conrad II of Oels, placing the property under a creditor’s control until the obligation was settled.
Troops of Matthias Corvinus, the fifteenth-century King of Hungary known for campaigns in Central Europe, captured and severely damaged Landek during the Hungarian-Bohemian War in 1474. The seat of the lordship consequently moved to Hultschin Castle. In 1492, King Ladislaus Jagiello of Bohemia pledged Landek Castle, the Hultschin lordship, and the Petrzkowitz manor to Casimir II, Duke of Teschen.
The ruined castle later became a refuge for robber bands. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Duke Sigismund of Troppau ordered an assault on the site. The robbers were executed, and the castle walls were demolished. On 15 February 1506, Barbara, Duchess of Troppau and Ratibor, and George of Schellenberg, Duke of Jägerndorf and lord of Leobschütz, renounced their overlordship of Landek Castle and the towns of Hultschin and Kranowitz in favor of John, Nicholas, and Valentin of Ratibor. The ruined castle passed to Bernhard von Zwole in 1517.
Excavation and later dismantling
Excavations took place at Landek between 1820 and 1830. Weapons recovered during the work were later exhibited by Hubert Stücker von Weyershof at Schillersdorf Castle. Parts of the ring walls and two sets of ramparts survived until the 1840s. Farmers from Koblov and Schillersdorf then dismantled the remaining stone for construction, using it for the hereditary magistrate’s office in Koblov and for farmhouses.
Remains
Hilltop fortifications
Landek Castle occupied the elongated Landek hill above the confluence of the Ostravice and Oder rivers in present-day Koblov, a district of Ostrava. The fortification enclosed the hilltop with ring walls and two lines of ramparts, creating a defended settlement on the elevated ground.
Only a few sections of wall survive, together with deteriorated ditches belonging to the ramparts. The excavations carried out between 1820 and 1830 recovered weapons, some of which were subsequently displayed at Schillersdorf Castle. The surviving masonry and earthworks represent the reduced remains of the castle’s enclosing defenses after later dismantling for building material.
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