Visited:30. 9. 2021
History:Egerberk (also Lestkov or Egerberg in German) is a castle ruin above the village of Lestkov near Klášterec nad Ohří. The name of the castle was derived from the German name of the Ohře River. The exact time of the castle's foundation is uncertain, but it is usually placed at the beginning of the 14th century. However, according to pottery finds, it is possible that it was built already during the second half of the 13th century. The first written mention of the castle dates back to 1317, when Vilém of Chýš and Egerberk lived there, and another one from 1322, when Vilém's younger brother Fricek wrote after the castle. Vilém's son, also Vilém, sold Egerberk in 1350 to the Lords of Šumburk, from whom it was bought by Jindřich Škopek of Dubá in 1384. The latter was one of the important advisors of King Wenceslas IV and had the castle very significantly rebuilt to meet the more demanding requirements for living and representation of the owner. This extensive Gothic reconstruction took place sometime between 1385 and 1395 and the castle thus acquired its final form. The castle was bought from the Lords of Dubá in 1411 by Mikuláš Augustin of Prague, the highest scribe in the land. He may have sold it as early as 1413, but it is not clear to whom, because the next owners are known only in 1422. It was Ota and Wend from Illburg and their uncle Půta from Illburg who co-owned the castle and in 1430 King Sigismund confirmed it to them as a royal fief. About five years later, Wend got into a big property dispute with William of Šumburk, which resulted in a small war. Wilhelm took Egerberk by trickery, so that Wendl walked out of the castle with his garrison while inspecting a neighbouring village, and Wilhelm captured the castle without a fight. When Wendl found out he went back to the castle, where he was wounded in the castle moat and a peasant captured him and handed him over to Wilhelm. The captured Wendl was starved to death by Wilhelm at Egerberg. Wilhelm of Šumburk then sold the castle to Jakoubek of Vřesovice in 1443, despite the protests of Wend's heir Puta of Illburg. In 1454, Egerberk was declared a dead fief and was acquired from King George of Poděbrady by Jan Calta of Kamenná Hora. Both Půta of Illburk and Jakoubek of Vřesovice protested against this, and the court in 1457 finally ruled in favour of Půta, who, however, had to pay Jakoubek of Vřesovice two thousand kopecks for the castle. In 1460 Puta of Illburg sold the castle to Boss of Fictum. After him, Dětřich and Věnek of Fictum lived in the castle, but in 1488 only Dětřich and his wife Katherine of Müldorf lived there. After him, Dětřich's son Bernartin inherited the castle, and from his sons the castle was bought in 1557 by Bohuslav Felix Hasištejnský of Lobkowice, who moved to the new castle Felixburg towards the end of his life. During his reign, the castle's estate changed from a royal fief to a freehold. From then on, only the castellan lived in the castle. After the death of Bohuslav Felix, his wife Anna of Fictum inherited the castle, but when she died in 1587, she bequeathed it to her nephews. One of them sold the estate to Linhart Štampach of Štampach. The Štampachs did not use Egerberk and the castle began to decay. The form of the original castle is unclear. It has been preserved, especially part of the masonry of the half-cylindrical tower, the walls of the castle core and part of the fortification of the second courtyard. Most of the preserved masonry comes mainly from the reconstruction of Jindřich Škopek of Dubá, who chose a two-palace layout for the castle and extended the fortifications. In the saddle in front of the castle there was a forecourt from which a water tank carved in the rock has been preserved. The castle was entered through a small tower with a simple fan-shaped forepart. After passing through the tower, newcomers crossed the moat on a bridge and entered the gate in another tower. This was open at the back and had a guardhouse adjacent to it on the side. The path then led between the north wall and the castle core to the first courtyard. The defenders could control the way from the hexagonal tower attached to the core wall. The first courtyard was enclosed in the north-east by an outbuilding, of which the vaulted cellar in particular survives. A ramp led from the courtyard to the gate to the castle core built into the ground floor of the palace. The gate was closed by a drawbridge. The passage behind the gate widens slightly and leads to the second courtyard, which separates the main palace with a trapezoidal plan and a smaller palace with a semicircular plan. The two palaces were connected by a massive wall, thus creating a roughly rectangular courtyard. It was surrounded by a pavilion at the second floor level. A large part of the courtyard is covered by the destruction of the masonry of the courtyard side of the semicircular palace. The main palace had three brick floors and survives almost in its entirety. On the ground floor there was only a gate passage and a room probably used as a stable. On the first floor, the only room accessible by a staircase from the courtyard was lit by a window with a stone seat. The second floor was habitable and a wooden partition divided it into two rooms. The smaller room was illuminated by three windows and led to the entrance to the prefecture. The larger room was also lit by three windows and a small bay chapel with a rib vault was inserted in the eastern wall. The imprint of the bay window can be seen on the outside of the palace. On the third floor there was a single large hall with another prefect. The palace was heated by a tiled stove and roofed with a yarn covering. The semicircular palace or tower is less well preserved. Around halfway up the tower, a gallery was built on wooden beams on the perimeter of the tower, which was accessible through a portal and had two windows above it. During the renovations at the end of the 15th century, the tower's masonry was extended from two to more than four metres on the inside and partly on the outside. The reason for this was to increase resistance to possible shelling of the castle by cannons from the opposite hill. At the same time, part of the courtyard was also built up. The entire castle was surrounded by a parcan wall and a moat underneath. The parkland was slightly widened under the tower with a gate and there was a farm building, which has only slightly survived. Especially on the southern side of the castle, the parcan wall has not survived.
Source:https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egerberk
Source:Castles, Chateaus and Fortresses in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia - Dr. Rudolf Anděl.
Impressions:A beautiful ruin, which is quite a hike.
