Svojanov Castle
Svojanov is a partial ruin of a Gothic castle located in the immediate vicinity of the town of Svojanov in the Svitavy district. It has been protected as a cultural monument since 1964. The castellan of the castle is Miloš Dempír (he took office in 2007).
History
Svojanov Castle was founded around 1224 by the royal purgrave Svéslav of Bořitov. In 1250, Kuna of Zbraslav is mentioned as the castellan of the castle. Svojanov is therefore one of the oldest stone castles in our lands.
In 1265, King Přemysl Otakar II founded the nearby royal dowry town of Polička, with whose history the castle's history was often intertwined. King Přemysl gave Svojanov Castle the new German name Fürstenberg [fyʁstənbeʁg] (Prince's Mountain), which was fashionable at the time, but this name did not catch on. The castle thus served the purpose of a guard fortress and provided protection over the provincial trade route connecting Brno with Litomyšl. This trade artery was later called the Reed Trail.
After the death of Přemysl Otakar II († 1278), the castle passed to the queen dowager Kunhuta. Kunhuta bequeathed the property to her second husband Záviš of Falkenštejn and her son Ješek. Falkenstein stayed at the castle for a time with his new wife Elisabeth and another son was born there. After Falkenstein's execution (1290), the castle passed to the crown.
Charles IV included Svojanov among the eleven castles that must not be removed from the Crown's possession in the draft of the Majestas Carolina Code, but his son Sigismund had already mortgaged the castle to the Lords of Boskovice during the Hussite Wars.
The castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance period, but was destroyed by fire and the Swedes during the battles of the Thirty Years' War. After the railway boom in the 19th century, the importance of the trade route and thus the strategic advantage of the castle and the whole region declined. Since 1910 it has belonged to the town of Polička (again after restitution in 1992).
WikipediaWebsite:http://www.svojanov.cz/
