Frýdštejn Castle

The castle on an isolated sandstone outcrop was founded around 1385 by the Lords of Biberštejn, who resided in nearby Frýdlant. The Hussites besieged it in vain in 1432, and the fortress continued to maintain its military significance even under later owners, among whom were the Vartenberks, the Smiřický family, and the Wallensteins. After centuries of importance, the castle is now a ruin, whose dominant feature remains a fifteen-meter-high tower with almost two-meter-thick walls, built on the highest point of the rock. The castle opened to the public as early as 1892, when the Turnov beautification society bought it from the Rohans and had the remaining masonry reinforced. Today, you ascend rock stairs among sandstone formations, and from the top of the tower, a view opens up deep into the landscape, on clear days, all the way to the silhouette of Bezděz. The place is one of the most visited ruins in Bohemian Paradise and also attracts visitors with the fairy-tale atmosphere of its forest-covered rocks.