Kokořín Castle () is a castle located in

Kokořín Kokořín is a municipality and village in Mělník District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 400 inhabitants. Kokořín is known for the Kokořín Castle. Administrative division Kokořín consists of six munici ...

in the

Central Bohemian Region The Central Bohemian Region ( ; ) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the central part of its historical region of Bohemia. Its administrative centre is in the Czech capital Prague, which lies in the centre of the regio ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It was built in the first half of the 14th century by order of

Hynek Berka of Dubá Hynek Berka of Dubá (; c. 1297 – 1348) was a Bohemian knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, ...

. It was heavily damaged during the

Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...

and stood in ruins until the reconstruction campaign of 1911–1918. It was nationalized in 1948 and has been designated a national cultural landmark since 2001. The Kokořínsko – Máchův kraj Protected Landscape Area takes its name from this castle.

History

In 1426,

Hussite file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...

troops captured and destroyed the castle. After the

, the castle often changed owners (in the 15th century, Řitka from Bezdědice and the Klinštějns, in the 16th century, the Beřkov family from Šebířov and Kaplířová). Since 1544 it was listed as deserted.Dvořáček, P.: Putování po hradech a zámcích, Olomouc 2000, p. 92. Its fate was made even worse by the decision of

Emperor Ferdinand II Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Hungary, and List of Croatian monarchs, Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II, Archduke of Austr ...

to classify it among the so-called ''cursed castles'', i.e. castles that were not allowed to be maintained, because otherwise, thanks to their advantageous location, they could threaten the monarch's power. In 1894, the Prague businessman Václav Špaček bought the ruins, and his son Jan had it reconstructed in

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In the years 1911–1916, the castle was modified to its present form by the architect Eduard Sochor according to the instructions of August Sedláček and Čeněk Zíbrt. In 1951, the castle was nationalized or confiscated. It became a national cultural monument in 2001. It was returned to the Špaček family in 2006.

References

External links

*
Kokořín castle
on zamky-hrady.cz
Virtual show
Mělník District Castles in the Central Bohemian Region National cultural monuments of the Czech Republic {{CzechRepublic-castle-stub

History

References

Further reading

External links