Location: 4 km from Lipník nad Bečvou, Olomouc Region Map
Constructed: 13th century by knight Friduš (Helfrid) of Linava
Helfštýn is a castle ruin near Týn nad Bečvou in the Přerov district
in the Olomouc region. It has been protected as a cultural monument of
the Czech Republic since 1963. The castle is owned by the Olomouc
region, the monument is managed and operated by the Comenius Museum in
Přerov.
The castle was founded at the beginning of the fourteenth
century. Its significant expansion occurred at the turn of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries at the latest, when it belonged to
the lords of Kravař. Another large-scale late Gothic reconstruction was
carried out by the Pernštejn family from the last quarter of the
fifteenth century. The last family to reside in the castle was the
Bruntál family from Vrbno, under whom the extensive Renaissance palace
was completed. At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, the castle was
briefly occupied by the estate army, but later it housed the imperial
garrison, which withstood two sieges. In later times, the castle was
only used for military purposes and fell into disrepair from the second
half of the eighteenth century. In the middle of the nineteenth century,
the first modifications took place, the aim of which was to make the
ruins accessible to visitors and organize cultural events. Monumental
modifications from the second half of the twentieth century disturbed
the historical appearance and adapted the ruin for the needs of the
annual meeting of Hefaiston artistic blacksmiths. The castellan of
Helfštýn is Jan Lauro.
The castle was probably founded by Friduš from Linava on part of the Drahotuš estate. According to František Spurný, this happened in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, while Miroslav Plaček dates the construction of the castle to just after 1306 or 1312. The time and the way in which Friduš z Linava lost Helfštýn is unclear, but sometime before 1320 he became the owner of the castle Vok I. from Kravař. Ješek from Kravař had to sue Čeňek from Drahotuš over the castle, but he won the dispute and Helfštýn belonged to the lords of Kravař for more than a hundred years. The most important member of the family was Lacek from Kravař and Helfštejn, who had the castle significantly expanded. The estate, which also included Lipník nad Bečvou, was inherited by Petr from Kravař and Strážnice in 1416. At the beginning of the Hussite Wars, he was on the side of the Hussites, but after King Sigismund of Luxembourg had his East Moravian estates plundered, he capitulated and, under the terms agreed upon, left Helfštýn as a pledge to Přemysl of Opava.
The castle was not conquered during the Hussite Wars. Petr from
Kravař rejoined the Hussites in 1425, and the history of the castle from
that time is unclear. From approximately 1434, a distant relative of the
lords from Kravař, Jan z Menspeck, resided there. The castle returned to
the lords of Kravař in direct possession thanks to the contract
concluded in 1440 in Valašské Meziříčí. Jiří z Kravař then sold Helfštýn
with the entire estate, which included 27 villages in addition to Lipník
and parts of four other villages, to Vok from Sovince sometime in
1444–1447. The estate belonged to him until 1467, when he sold it for
thirty thousand Hungarian guilders to Albrecht, Zdenek and Jan Kostk
from Postupice and Jiřík from Landštejn. In 1468, King Matyáš Corvín was
besieging Helfštýn under Kostký from Postupice. The castle was damaged
during the fighting, but there are no reports of its eventual capture.
Albrecht Kostka from Postupice sold the castle to Vilém from
Pernštejn in 1474. The new owner immediately began generous building
modifications, during which the fortifications were improved and a new
rampart was built. The date on the sandstone slab above the new gate
dates the rebuilding to 1480. Also Vilém's son Jan IV. from Pernštejn,
he continued with building modifications. At the same time, Helfštýn
became the military center of the family, in which the Pernštejn family
collected the weapons and ammunition needed to equip the army. Although
the lords of Pernštejn owned the largest noble property in Bohemia and
Moravia, the wealthy family ran into financial difficulties, which
forced them to gradually sell off their property. One of the first
estates sold was Helfštýn, which was bought by Půta z Ludanice in 1554.
In 1560, his son Václav z Ludanice inherited the castle, and when he
died in 1571, only five-year-old Kateřina z Ludanice became the sole
owner. At the age of fourteen, she married Petr Vok from Rožmberk.
Helfštýn belonged to the Rožmberk estate for only twelve years. The
estate was far from other family holdings, it was difficult to manage,
and its debt gradually reached eighty thousand guilders. Petr Vok
therefore sold the estate in 1592 or 1593 for 120,000 Rhine gold to Hynk
Bruntálský from Vrbno.
The Bruntál family from Vrbno founded a nearby castle in Lipník and
built or rather completed the construction of an extensive
Renaissance palace in the castle core. The last owner of the castle
from their family was Jiří z Vrbno, who took part in the estate
uprising as one of the directors. For this he was imprisoned in
Špilberk, where he died in 1622. His property was confiscated by the
emperor and immediately handed over to Cardinal František of
Ditrichštejn. Although there was an imperial garrison in the castle
in 1621, the Wallachians led by Jan Jiří Krnovský occupied it
without a fight, and remained there until 1622.
During the
Thirty Years' War, the castle was unsuccessfully besieged twice
more. This happened for the first time in the autumn of 1626, when
the Danish army of General Mansfeld attacked the castle. The castle
successfully resisted him, but František of Ditrichštejn then
transferred the administration of the estate from the castle to the
castle in Lipník. For the second time, the castle garrison under the
command of Štěpán Bruntálský from Vrbno resisted the siege by the
Swedish army of General Torstenson in 1643. After the war, the
castle was no longer maintained, and in 1656, despite the objection
of the owner, demolition work was started, which was to prevent the
military use of the castle in case of war . However, when the
invasion of Turkish troops threatened in 1663, the damage was
repaired. As early as 1680, during the Tököly Rebellion, the castle
housed the imperial garrison and a fortification was built under the
castle, which served as a shelter for the surrounding population.
Smaller fortification works were carried out in the middle of the
eighteenth century, but after the Seven Years' War the military
significance of the castle definitely declined. In the second half
of the eighteenth century, Karel Jan of Ditrichštejn had most of the
roofs dismantled and all usable elements dismantled. The trumpet
tower was said to be in such bad condition that it was in danger of
collapsing. In 1817, sixty cannon shots were fired at it, after
which part of the tower collapsed. The owner of the manor František
Josef from Ditrichštejn was present at the shelling.
Already before the middle of the nineteenth century, the first
modifications were made to make the castle accessible to visitors. Part
of the road to the castle was paved at the instigation of Governor
Atkins, and an empire gazebo was erected near it. A bowling alley and a
hospitality center were set up on the gable wall. Music and dance
gazebos, a dance floor, another bowling alley and a restaurant were
built in the second courtyard. This equipment was probably damaged by
the wind in 1859, and from 1865 social events at the castle were
prohibited. The only inhabitant of the castle was a hunter who had an
apartment in the tower above the second gate. They did not open another
inn in the castle until 1895.
After the land reform in the 1920s,
the state became the owner of the castle for eight years, but in 1930
Antoinette of Althann regained it. The last private owner was Michal
Karel from Althann, from whom the castle was confiscated in 1945. After
him, the management of the castle was ensured by the National Land Fund
and the Directorate of Military Forests. On July 16, 1947, the castle
became the property of the Club of Czech Tourists, and in 1949 it
belonged to the Czechoslovak municipality of Sokolské. Since 1952, the
castle has been managed by the Ministry of Education, at whose
instigation a sanitation plan was drawn up, the aim of which was to
cover the preserved buildings and their cultural use. The Regional
Museum of National History in Olomouc and, since 1960, the District
Museum of National History of J.A. Komenský in Přerov provided its own
administration.
From the second half of the nineteenth century,
the castle was continually repaired at the instigation of Princess
Gabriela of Hatzfeld and her daughter Antoinette of Althann. The repairs
also included digging a new well in the third ditch. In the second half
of the twentieth century, a number of maintenance and reconstruction
works took place at the castle, some of which did not respect the
principles of historic preservation and even damaged the outer
fortifications. Some poorly executed repairs from the 1950s and 1960s
were short-lived. After 1978, the architect Zdeněk Gardavský took a
significant part in the reconstruction works. However, the interventions
carried out by him often did not respect the historical nature of the
building and irreversibly changed the form of the castle without
starting from its true historical form. Similarly, the shape of the
Kravařské pre-castle has changed, which has been modified to meet the
needs of the blacksmiths who meet at the castle during the Hefaiston
artistic blacksmiths' meeting. Maintenance and reconstruction work after
1990 is carried out in a way that is more respectful of historical
authenticity, although the modification of the northern tower in the
Kravařské pre-castle into a lookout tower is considered controversial.
In 2017, the reconstruction of the castle core was started, originally
planned for 2019, with the completion date additionally moved to June
30, 2020. Its goal was to statically secure the masonry, make the palace
accessible by means of footbridges, and cover it with sandblasted glass.
The reconstruction was successfully completed in 2020. The rescue and
renovation of the castle palace was included among the buildings awarded
the title Building of the Year 2021.
Helfštýn was founded in the fourteenth century and the
gradual expansion of the fortified area continued until the
seventeenth century. Thanks to this, it is one of the largest
castles in the Czech Republic. The original form of the castle
was to some extent affected by modern interventions, which
complicated, or even made it impossible to recognize the older
construction phases.
The castle founded by Friduš of
Linava had a polygonal plan defined by a weak wall protected by
a moat. According to Jiří Kohoutek, Friduš's castle was smaller
than the preserved dimensions of the castle core, and its
buildings were largely wooden. Only on the north side stood a
small stone palace, from which a barrel-vaulted cellar has been
preserved. The lords of Kravař had the poor quality and
uncomfortable castle newly fortified with a two-meter-wide wall,
which defined an area sixty meters long and thirty meters wide.
A new palace and another archeologically proven building were
built in the area of the preserved eastern wing. At the end of
the fourteenth century at the latest, the castle core was
surrounded by a fence. According to Dobroslava Menclová and
other researchers, a bergfrit stood in the southeastern part of
the courtyard, but according to research from 1996, Helfštýn is
considered a towerless castle in its oldest construction phase.
Based on the same research, the existence of a castle chapel
around the middle of the fourteenth century was rejected.
There was probably a forecourt in front of the core, but its
possibly oldest construction phase was not documented due to
poor documentation of archaeological research. In its place, at
the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, under Lacko
from Kravař, a new six-sided forecourt was built, and at the
same time, perhaps, the so-called Trumpeter Tower was built
above the gate of the castle core. Part of the ramparts are
towers open to the inside, which may date from the end of the
fourteenth century, but according to Zdenek Gardavský, they only
date back to the period of the Hussite Wars. The moat in front
of the pre-castle was walled in and the wall, which was created
by raising the inner lining of the moat, provided space for
firing cannons in the fifteenth century. The preserved
appearance of the forecourt is the result of modifications
carried out mainly as a result of a large-scale fire in the
second half of the fifteenth century. In the castle core, Lacek
from Kravař had a new eastern palace wing with a chapel built.
After the siege by Matyáš Corvín, the entrance to the
forecourt was newly secured. An access corridor was built in
front of the original gate, which was entered through a
prismatic tower connected to a round bastion. In addition, the
eastern side of the corridor was secured by a compartment called
a kennel with a small rounded bastion in the corner of the wall.
At the same time, the northern palace in the castle core was
also expanded, the fortifications of which were strengthened by
three bastions. Of these, only the northeastern bastion
survived, while the southeastern one disappeared and the
northwestern bastion was absorbed by the palace building.
During the Pernštejn family, the castle was significantly rebuilt and
expanded. Vilém of Pernštejn had a new portal built into the access
corridor to the Kvará castle, whose wall was strengthened by two small
round bastions. On the south-western side, he founded a new fort about
150 meters long and sixty meters wide. It is protected by a wall
strengthened by five horseshoe-shaped bastions, the ground floor of
which was adapted for the construction of smaller cannons and the first
floor for small-arms shooters. The prismatic three-story entrance tower
in the northwest corner is pushed out in front of the wall and thus
enables the flanking of both adjacent sections of the walls.
In
the castle core, Vilém of Pernštejn had both palaces expanded, so that
they became one two-winged building, while he extended the northern wing
towards the courtyard with an annex, with a spiral spiral staircase. The
Trumpeter Tower also got a new look.
John IV from Pernštejn
continued to expand the castle. It is possible that he already started
the construction of the Renaissance palace in the castle core, but the
more likely version is that the founder of the palace was Petr Vok from
Rožmberk and the Bruntál family from Vrbno completed the construction.
Baldassare Maggi is considered the architect of the palace. Great
attention of John IV. from Pernštejn dedicated to the security of the
castle. Allegedly his work is a massive gable wall, the width of which
varies from 7.5 to ten meters and the height reaches 13.5 meters. On the
outside, it is protected by a brick moat, over which a bridge on brick
pillars leads. The wall on the outside is strengthened by two round
protrusions. The defense of the wall was made possible by casemate
artillery embrasures and other firing positions for cannons on top of
the wall. Despite its unusual dimensions, such a wall was already an
outdated fortress element at the time of its creation, but according to
certain indications, its construction was forced by a more complex
defensive situation. In addition, the front of the castle in front of
the gable wall was secured by an elongated bastion in front of the first
moat, and a gun bastion called Hladomorna was built in the area under
the eastern side of the castle core.
Cultural and historical events held at the castle include:
meeting
of artistic blacksmiths Hefaiston,
fencing festival,
pilgrimages
and markets.
The castle is also used by filmmakers; so in 1987
footage of the fairy tale About Living Water was shot here; in 2010,
they filmed the lyrical drama Janek and Anežka here, inspired by the
legend of the Green Lady.
The reconstruction of the castle by
Atelier-r from Olomouc won the Czech Architecture Award for 2021
organized by the Czech Chamber of Architects. The reconstruction
improved the conditions for the storage and accessibility of
archaeological collections. The number of exhibited exhibits, focused on
artistic blacksmithing, archeology and various objects from the 18th -
20th centuries, has doubled.
A number of legends are associated with Helfštýn:
It is said that
the devil dug a well here (Devil's Well) for the robber knight Friduš.
The moss-covered stone (Devil's Stone) that he dropped is still at the
entrance to the well today.
About the Helfstein dog. That is, to a
big black dog, which is supposed to be the spirit of Friduš himself, who
guards the buried treasures.
Christmas Eve night in Helfštýn. The
legend about how the groom went to look for treasures on Christmas Day,
but instead saw a procession of knights, i.e. their ghosts.
About the
Green Lady, i.e. Anežka, who would rather throw herself into the pool in
front of the castle than give herself up to the crusader knight Jan
Messenpek.
About the Black Cat, into which the poor squire Ganelun is
cursed.
The White Lady appears on the walls.
About the curse of
Kateřina of Ludanice