Little Castle of Louzek
Location:
The ruin of the little castle of Louzek is located 4 km to the
south of Kaplice
Origin of the Name:
The word Louzek (in the German language Lauseck) comes from a
German word Lauer - hiding place.
Architectural and Historical Development:
The little castle of Louzek is located as a river tear on a wide
headland of the fast flowing Malše river. The builder who built the
castle did not sufficiently take advantage of the headland itself.
The stringent financial situation did not allow the owners to use
this headland to build a big castle and forced them to build the
little castle in a corner of sheer rocks surrounded from two sides
by the Malše river. Two remaining sides are protected from the west
only by a simple mound that is strengthened from the north with a
trench quarried into the rocks. The whole castle complex was made
up of two parts at the time of its glory days. The first part was a
little barbican situated between the north and west mound and the
second is the centre of the castle itself that has pentagonal
design. There were out-buildings built on the barbican but nothing
remains of them. The same fate also hit the walled part of the
castle. The erosion activity of nature supported by the lack of
interest of the owner about the future of the construction
accelerated the end of the castle buildings from which mostly only
plain base walls remain. Only in the south-west part of the
fortified place the remains of stony dwelling houses remain.
History of the Place's Residents:
The very beginning of the castle is lost in times past and it is
very difficult to prove the date of its establishment and its
original owner. The whole construction was built on the boundary of
three estates: the Rosenbergs, estates of Pořešín of the Bavors and
the Benešov estates of the Lords from Michalovice. Probably the
Lords from Maršovice, coming from the family of the Witigonen, who
had a rose in their coat-of-arms and were poor relatives of the
Rosenbergs lived there. They lived in a friendly relationship with
the Lords from Pořešín because Hroch z Maršovic was a guardian of
young Markvart z Pořešína and the whole estates. Later the little
castle of Louzek became an property of a member of the famous and
also powerful family of Malovci, Jan z Malovic. However, his sons
passed the little castle of Louzek to Ulrich II. von
Rosenberg in 1448 who joined it to the estates of Nové Hrady.
In 1541 when the list of the Rosenbergs´ estates were made, the
little castle of Louzek was already mentioned only as a deserted
place. Although nobody lived there from 1448 one can find in the
market papers concerning the sale of the half of the Nové Hrady
estates from 1641 a notice that the little castle is still in a
good condition.
Tales and legends:
On a sheer rock above the Malše river are the ruins of the little
castle of Louzek the owner of which was a cruel and bad knight.
Once a pilgrim from Jerusalem came to the castle and warned the
cruel castle Master of rightful punishment. But the knight did not
care and put the poor pilgrim into the castle cellar where he
suffered from snakes, scorpions, bats, salamanders, toads and rats.
When the prisoner died all of those horrible animals spread all
over the castle. Scared inhabitants escaped and the repulsive
varmint ate the cruel Master alive. Since then the castle has not
been settled and nobody can help the last owner who walks at night
in the ruins crying and screaming.
Once on Christmas Eve the pigs ran from a farm yard under the castle, ran away and a young herdsman ran after them to catch them. He could not find the lost herd it was only at the next Christmas Eve that the pigs and the herdsman appeared again in the yard. The boy told that he ran after the pigs in the underground cellars of the little castle of Louzek but he did not know that it took all year.
Fearsome robbers settled down in the ruins of the castle. There was a passage underground leading to an old lime tree. Every night the robbers stretched out a wire with a bell on the end. When the bell began to ring they ran out of their hidden places and robbed the poor traveller, killed him and buried him under the roots of the lime tree. When the robber band broke up the treasure was left in the underground passages. Whoever would find the remains of that lime tree and also the underground passages could take this treasure with them but they have to give a half of it for the benefit of the church.
(mh)