Berkovský vrch

Berkovský vrch
	View from the slope of the Korecký vrch
height	482 m
location	Czech Republic
Mountains	Daubai Switzerland
Coordinates	50 ° 33 '24 " N , 14 ° 34' 48" E Coordinates: 50 ° 33 '24 " N , 14 ° 34' 48" E
rock	basalt

The Berkovský vrch (German Wrchhabener Berg ) is a 482 m high basalt peak in Daubaer Schweiz in the Czech Republic . It is located directly northeast of the village Vrchovany ( Wrchhaben ) and is crowned by the ruins of the Gothic castle Starý Berštejn ( Altperstein ).

Castle history

Very little is known about the origins of Altperstein Castle.

It was probably created at the beginning of the 14th century by the Berka von Dubá and was given the name Berkenstein . However, there are also views that it was once called Prsten (Ring) or Bärenstein and that it has belonged to Persteinsky von Miekowic since the 14th century.

Other opinions assume that Heinrich Hlawatsch von Dubá had the castle built around 1402.

The first written evidence of the castle dates from 1437. At that time it was owned by the Berka von Dubá. In the following period the castle came to the Wartenbergs and Siegmund von Wartenberg is documented as lord on Perstein in 1474, followed by the lords of Schebirzow. In 1487 the last of the Persteinsky family, Johann Persteinsky von Miekowic, died without descendants and the fiefdom reverted to the Bohemian crown. The new lord of the castle was Burgrave Benesch von Weitmühl on Karlstein .

Since 1493 Perstein Castle was part of the property of the Berka von Dubá, in 1512 Georg Berka von Dubá is lord of the castle. With the construction of the nearby Neuperstein Castle between 1540 and 1580, the focus of rule shifted more and more to the castle. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the property was confiscated and handed over to the Bohemian High Court Master Adam von Waldstein , from whom Albrecht von Waldstein acquired it. After his murder and the relapse of the property, Perstein was handed over to Wallenstein's murderer, Colonel Richard Walter Butler .

When the Swedes invaded the castle in 1640, it was destroyed and razed by Johan Banér's army . Since there was no longer any need as a domicile or residence for the complex located on the steep mountain peak, it was left desolate.

The ruin has been privately owned since 1972 and has not been open to the public since then.

view

Because of its exposed location in the valley between Daubaer Schweiz and the Kummergebirge , the mountain, which is also a watershed, offers a wide panoramic view of the surrounding mountainous landscape and Lake Macha ( Máchovo jezero ).

literature

Fritz and Elisabeth Böhmer: Robber barons' castles in Bohemia and Lusatia. Piding-Verlag, 1990.
Tomáš Durdík : Castles of Northern Bohemia. Propagační tvorba, Praha 1992, ISBN 80-85386-50-X .

Web links

Commons : Berkovský vrch - collection of images, videos and audio files