On two sandstone rocks, which rise to a height of almost 60 m above the valley of the Libuňka River, between Trosky andWallenstein , stands the Hrubá Skála Chateau, once a castle called only Skála. Since Skála above the Jizera River still existed in this region, in the 17th century their names were distinguished into Malá and Hrubá Skála. The similarity of the names in the historical beginnings of both castles and, moreover, the owners of different branches of the same family, all this caused difficulties in locating historical events at the time of their origin. The manor of today’s Hrubá Skála was created by splitting off from the goods of Valdštejn Castle.
Skála Castle was probably built by Hynek of Wallenstein, who is mentioned in 1353 as the lord of Skála, which thus appears for the first time in written sources. However, for unknown reasons, Hynek soon ceded the castle to his brother Jaroslav (Jarek) of Valdštejn in Chlum, Skála and Lomnice, which is documented in writing in 1. 1358-1362. Skála Castle belonged to the high rock castles, which were built where it was possible to use natural conditions for defense. The place was chosen very well. The platform of two huge boulders provided sufficient space for the bailey and the castle itself, and both parts were practically accessible only from one place, from the south by a bridge, under which there was an almost sixty-meter abyss. This bridge led to the bailey, which connected another bridge with the rear castle. There it was necessary to hew the rock on the west side and widen the ravine between the two boulders. We do not know the appearance of the original Gothic castle, although in many places of the rocky foundations openings for beams have been preserved, and under the current large tower there is a tangle of underground rooms carved on the floors below each other, some completely dark, others with openings on the north side of the rock. Also on the opposite rock outside the castle, called Prachovna, there are remains of foundations and traces of stairs. The rock protruded high above the rock boulders and from its platform it was easy to see the wide surroundings in the north from Ještěd throughKozákov and further into the region.
Jaroslav of Wallenstein probably died in 1370 and until 1395 it is not clear about the other owners of the castle. The fact that Peter of Vartemberk was among them in Veliš after this year is evident from several documents related to the solution of serf issues in the vicinity of Skála and the sale of some of Peter’s estates to the Bishop of Litomyšl. Since in 1. 1407-1408 the bishop donated Skála to the Litomyšl church, it is obvious that the sale concerned Skála and the respective villages. In 1. 1416-1460, the owners of Skála were the opponents of the Hussite movement, the Lords of Jenštejn. Only the serf town of Rovensko and adjacent villages belonged to the castle, so it was not a large estate. In 1460, they acquired Skála to the Zajíc family of Házmburk. Jan Zajíc sided with the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus against George of Poděbrady, and therefore in 1469 the castles of the Házmburks were besieged. Skála surrendered and Jan Zajíc was forced to ask King George to conclude an agreement. The next owners of Skála became the Svojanovský of Bozkovice before 1492, first Jindřich and after his death in 1509 Jan. The Skala estate was already quite large at that time and Jan Svojanovský also bought new and new estates. The Skála now included the Valdštejn Castle with its respective villages, part of Turnov, Rovensko, Semily, Vysoký, Návarov with estates and villages from Vyskeř in the south through Kozákov and Zásada in the north, from Borek in the east to Turnov, a total of 54 villages or parts thereof. Although Jan sold the Svojanov estate, he fell into debt with new purchases on Skála and was forced to pledge the Skala estate to creditors. Individual parts of the pledged Skala estate were bought from 1515 by Zikmund of Smiřice and by 1524 he gradually seized the entire Skala property.
This is how the hundred-year-old dominion of Smiřické nad Skálou began, which was also reflected in the structural change of the castle. The Gothic Skála was transformed into a Renaissance chateau. Wooden buildings mostly gave way to buildings made of stone. A continuous corridor was newly established on the second floor of the west wing. Columned arcades were opened on the first floor. A worm staircase led to the first floor, and the main tower with a square floor plan was also substantially modified. Above the level of the buildings, a gallery was established in the tower and above it a narrower square tower. In the tower there was a vaulted room with a door leading to an arcade corridor, from which one entered the large hall. The palace building on the south side of the courtyard was decorated with Renaissance sgraffiti with hunting scenes. The building on the east side was similarly supplemented, so that only the north of the courtyard was closed by low galleries. The entrance to the bailey was also equipped with a high gate with a drawbridge. The security of the castle was perfect. In this form, the Rock was completely inaccessible. Although the value of the furnished manor rooms can only be made from a few preserved objects, they have a really high artistic level. In the Museum of the Bohemian Paradise in Turnov, there is a carved wide Renaissance chest and a seat, but especially a Meissen stove (originally a fireplace from the Great Hall) with colourful glazed tiles in the lower part with antique portraits and in the upper part with a pair in Renaissance costumes with the letters WDMIE on each tile of different colours. (Older historians interpreted them as an abbreviation of the motto LEAD ME. However, this interpretation is unlikely, it is probably a cryptogram, which was fashionable at that time and marked the beginning of the words of an important sentence, while the letters had to be read from left to right. The consensus offers the sentence Verbum Domini Manet in aeternam – The Word of the Lord lasts forever. These objects prove the wealth of the Smiřický family and at the same time the change in the taste of the lords of the newly built castles.
Sigismund of Smiřice died in 1548 and left behind three sons, of whom Jindřich inherited Skála. He also continued his father’s tradition and expanded the Skala estate; from the immediate vicinity he bought Trosky Castle with adjacent villages. He died in 1569 and his estates were divided by three sons. Already in this generation, there was a premature extinction of individual members of the family, which later meant the demise of the Smiřický family by the sword. Jaroslav died without heirs in 1588 and after him Albrecht in 1602, and so after his death another Zikmund Smiřický of Smiřický became the lord of immense wealth. He did not deny the family’s ability to expand the manor and bought Kumburk, Český Dub and other goods and introduced exemplary farming on all of them. He died in 1608. He was survived by three sons, Jaroslav, Jindřich Jiří and Albrecht Jan. Jaroslav died young in 1611, Jindřich Jiří was weak-minded, so Albrecht Jan gained a huge fortune at the age of seventeen. He did not have good health either, but he excelled in education and intelligence. He zealously participated in all the actions of the Czech estates who were preparing a rebellion against Ferdinand IL, inspired and incited the uprising and even actively participated in military actions in 1618. In November of the same year, however, he fell ill in a military camp near České Budějovice and died at the age of twenty-four after being transported to Prague. In this way, he actually escaped the fate of his comrades after the defeat at White Mountain in 1620, which was followed by a trial and execution of the leaders of the uprising in 1621. Although Albrecht Jan was posthumously sentenced to the loss of all his property, the Skala estate remained unpunished, because its inseparable co-owner was the weak-minded Jindřich Jiří, who was actually innocent. He was the only one left as the last male descendant of the powerful Smiřický family, and with him two of his sisters, Eliška and Markéta Saloména. Family affairs were also complicated by Eliška’s love affair with a blacksmith chasnik. This happened in 1606 during the lifetime of her father Zikmund Smiřický. As a punishment, she was imprisoned in a corner chamber under the turret on the northwest side of the castle. Her father would perhaps have revoked the cruel sentence in time, but he died in 1608. Eliška’s sister Markéta Saloména, married to Jindřich Slavata, took advantage of this. She wanted to achieve guardianship of her sister and had her taken away from Skála and imprisoned atKumburk Castle near Jičín. With the death of her brother Albrecht Jan, she actually became the only heiress of the immense estate, if she was appointed guardian of Jindřich Jiří. However, the situation was complicated by the fact that Jindřich Ota Vartemberk forcibly freed Eliška Smiřická from the prison in Kumburk and married her. Markéta Saloména Slavatová therefore immediately started a dispute over the Smiřice inheritance. Eliška’s husband was captured and imprisoned in Prague, the unfortunate Eliška lived in the Jičín castle, which also belonged to her family. The dispute ended tragically: during a commission investigation at the castle in Jičín, an explosion occurred on February 1, 1620, in which the entire commission, Jindřich Slavata and Eliška, died. The Jičín catastrophe heralded a catastrophe of wider importance, which began with the defeat of the Estates on November 8, 1620 at White Mountain. Markéta Slavatová fled Bohemia and took her weak-minded brother Jindřich Jiří with her to Germany. Later she returned again and sued for her property.
Albrecht of Wallenstein, who was indeed related to the Smiřický family after his mother, applied for the guardianship of Jindřich Jiří. Only he could have managed to save from confiscation that part of the estates of the Smiřický family, in which Jindřich Jiří had a share and which were entrusted to him together with the guardianship of a weak-minded relative. But even so, Albrecht of Wallenstein achieved a favorable result only after long negotiations. So he acquired the estates, but the matter with Jindřich Jiří, who was taken by his sister Margaret Saloména to Germany, was more complicated. It was not until 1628 that he was transported all the way from Hamburg to Hrubá Skála. The manor of the Smiřický and Redern families, who held Frýdlant before the confiscation after the White Mountain, became the center of gravity of the future duchy of Albrecht of Wallenstein. He chose Jičín as the ducal residence, from where the entire estate was uniformly managed. The weak-minded Jindřich Jiří Smiřický died in Hrubá Skála in 1630 and the Skala goods remained in Wallenstein’s possession. From the property of the Smiřický family, he acquired Hrubá and Malá Skála, Trosky, Frýdštejn, Semily, Navarov, Kumburk, Hořice and, of course, the estates belonging to them. The town of Turnov was again united for a time and received some rights from Albrecht of Wallenstein, because the former double estate between Hrubá Skála and Hrubý Rohozec actually reduced it to the level of a village.
During the lifetime of Albrecht of Wallenstein, his duchy was spared from the horrors of war, only re-Catholicization broke out on the estates in full force. Small peasant rebellions arose, easily managed by the army, such as the rebellion in 1629 near Rovensko, during which rebellious serfs in Libuňa murdered the Jesuit Father Matthias Burnatius from Jičín. With the death of Albrecht of Wallenstein in 1634, the Duchy of Frýdlant also ceased to exist. The new owner of Hrubá Skála became his close relative Maximilian of Wallenstein, originally designated by him as the heir to the duchy. However, this was not possible, because Albrecht’s property was confiscated. Maximilian, who was also a favorite of Ferdinand IL, nevertheless demanded the Skala estate with Turnov. The new owner took over the property in 1636 and found Hrubá Skála plundered from both the Saxons and the imperials, who behaved worse than their enemies on the former estate of Albrecht of Wallenstein. Until 1648, when the Thirty Years’ War ended, Hrubá Skála and the manor were plagued by the invasions of the Swedes and the passages of the imperials, who cruelly extorted money, cattle, grain, handicrafts, beer and wine. During the Swedish invasion in 1639, Albrecht Slavata, the son of Markéta Saloména, née Smiřická, appeared on Hrubá Skála, but he did not stay here for long. The imperial commander Colloredo conquered the castle because the Swedes did not have enough ammunition to defend themselves. In 1643, the Swedes with General Torstenson came, burned Turnov and marched into the interior of the country. The garrison on Hrubá Skála surrendered to them and the Swedes left their soldiers in the castle. The region was affected by contributions, entire villages of the Hrubá Skála estate were burned down and the fields were abandoned.
Maximilian of Wallenstein lived in Vienna throughout the Thirty Years’ War and died there in 1655. During the reign of his grandson Arnošt Josef, the Hrubá Skála Castle was to be demolished according to the imperial order from 1658 together with the castles of Veliš and Kostí , because during the wars the castles and fortified chateaux were often taken over by the enemy. Veliš Castle was indeed completely destroyed, but the destruction work progressed very sluggishly. Only a part of the moat was filled in at Hrubá Skála and after delays with the convening of commissions, further actions were completely abandoned in the autumn of 1659. It seems that the protest of the owner of the chateau was heard in Vienna. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there were no significant building modifications to Hrubá Skála. Only in 1710, when the chateau burned down, the then owner of the manor, František Josef Valdštejn, had it restored according to the state from the time of the Smiřický family. The fire hit the rear chateau, not the bailey. Another fire, this time in 1804, destroyed the bailey, where most of the buildings were made of wood. After the fire, it was built of stone. At that time, Hrubá Skála was owned by Karel Josef of Wallenstein, who abolished the castle chapel in the south-eastern corner of the castle, because the Church of St. George was built in the open space in front of the castle.
The last Wallenstein František Adam was much more of a scholar than a lord of the castle. He excelled as a botanist and published in Vienna a three-volume work Descriptio et icones plantarum rariarum Hungarie, which is still a valuable lesson for experts. It is therefore not surprising that he was not very interested in farming on Hrubá Skála, and therefore he sold the manor and the chateau in 1821 to Jan Lex of Aehrenthal, who founded a new aristocratic line on Hrubá Skála. He bought the title of nobility with the money he earned as a war supplier during the Napoleonic wars. All the Aehrenthals were good farmers. In the first and second generations, they tried to emphasize their nobility by ostentatious modifications of their residence and the surrounding remnants of aristocratic glory, and they also got into the environment of old noble families through marriages. They carried out reconstruction and modification on Wallenstein Hill, purchased stairs inTrosky and in 1859 had Hrubá Skála modified (Jan Antonín) in the neo-Gothic style, which they used to cover most of the Renaissance elements except for the main tower, arcades to the courtyard on the west side and sgraffito on the south. A gate to the bailey was newly built with a stone bridge on which there are two Gothic statues of St. Florian and St. Lawrence. The bailey was also modified and a park was built on the east side. The bridge from the courtyard to the castle yard was also built of stone. The eastern building of the castle was extended to the gallery and modified in the neo-Gothic style, which significantly damaged its existing Renaissance character. After 1945, Hrubá Skála was taken over by the Czechoslovak state as a confiscated state.
