Sion Castle
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Sion Castle , named after the biblical place Zion , is a castle ruin that is located on a steep rock above the Vrchlice near Chlístovice in okres Kutná Hora ( Czech Republic ).
history
The fortress was built between 1426 and 1427 by the Hussite leader Jan Roháč z Dubé as his own residence. It was a relatively small triangular building with a small outer bailey, protected by a heaped earth wall. The actual castle was behind a deep moat. The buildings did not have their own water sources, only a small semicircular tower offered protection against attacks, in which one could, however, set up cannons.
According to the Catholic historian Aeneas Sylvius , Emperor Sigismund sent his army against one of the last leaders of the Hussites, who had holed up in this castle with his followers, which was supposed to finally defeat the rebels. After forty days of siege, the imperial general Hynek Ptáček z Pirkštejna , a nephew of Jan Roháč, managed to take the castle. According to Sylvio, he had underground tunnels built, the entrance of which was behind the wall and the exit in the moat. At the same time he waited for a favorable wind. On September 6, 1437 the time had come. A stormy wind blew up the smoke from the fire and the artillery in the direction of the castle, so that the soldiers could penetrate the tunnels unnoticed, cross the moat and with the help of ladders climb the not too high fortress walls. Roháč is said to have been having lunch with some of his followers when he was alarmed by the noise and took up arms. Too late, however, because a large part of the imperial family was now inside the castle. Roháč was captured and brought to Prague with the 46 survivors (after František Palacký there were 53), including the Polish knight Výšek Račinský and the priest Martin Prostředek . The castle was set on fire and destroyed.
In the meantime, however, it is assumed that Hynek, who, like most of the Bohemian nobility, was not necessarily inclined to the emperor, only besieged the castle and probably did not use cannons, which were too expensive at the time and the technology was not yet fully developed. Even archaeological excavations have not been able to prove a large-scale use of the cannons or the aforementioned tunnels. The castle was finally conquered when Sigismund Hynek sent a Hungarian army led by Michal Orság to help.
Only a few remains of the wall are left of the castle.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 53 ' N , 15 ° 13' E