HAZMBURK Castle, formerly called Klepý, has been towering over the fertile plain around the Elbe River and the Lower Ohře River for over six centuries against the background of the green cones of the Bohemian Central Highlands. The towers of this ruin are one of the unmissable landmarks of the landscape of the lower Ohře River and you can see them at a distance of up to several tens of kilometers. They rise on top of a steep basalt massif and remind us of the faded glory of the impregnable Gothic castle.
However, it has been lying in ruins since the beginning of the 17th century. It got its name only after 1335, when it was named after his coat of arms by Zbyněk Zajíc of Valdek. HAZMBURK Castle is located on a 418-meter-high basalt hill. In 1898, 1900 and 1939, the basalt massif was the cause of natural disasters, during which the original village of Klapý was destroyed. There are many legends and myths associated with HAZMBURK, which inspired important Czech artists, such as Karel Hynek Mácha, Svatopluk Čech, Emil Filla and others. The HAZMBURK State Castle invites you to visit with its irreplaceable role as a natural lookout tower with the possibility of climbing a staircase to a prismatic tower, called BÍLÁ.
The building, which has survived to the present day, was almost certainly founded around the middle of the 13th century, when a number of important feudal residences were established in Bohemia, by the Lichtenburk family. At that time, however, only the core of the castle was probably completed, which consisted of a prismatic tower surrounded by strong walls on a rectangular ground plan. This austere part without windows and decorative elements indicates the purely military significance of the residence, which at that time was perhaps not even intended to serve as a nobleman’s residence. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Liechtenburks lost interest in their local properties and exchanged them with King John of Luxembourg for others.
In 1335 , the king sold the castle to Zbyněk Zajíc of Valdek. At that time, the original name of the castle Klapý was changed to Hazmburk, according to the name of this nobleman (German hare = der Hase).
