Jenštejn castle[editovat | editovat zdroj]

Jenštejn castle
	ruin of castle in Jenštejn village
Účel stavby
	view point, museum
Základní informace
Sloh	Gothic
Výstavba	30s of the 14th century
Přestavba	end of the 14th century
Zánik	1640
Stavitel	Jenc of Janovice
Poloha
Adresa	Jenštejn, Česko

Jenštejn Castle is a castle ruin in the village of Jenštejn (German: Jenstein, also Jenzenstein or Genzenstein) in the district of Prague-east in the Central Bohemian Region. The small town of Jenštejn was founded with a small, water-protected castle in the first half of the 14th century by Jenc of Janovice (from here the name “jenc´s stone“ = "Jencenstein"), a high ranking official in court yard, in 1336-1361. Lords of Jenštejn have their nickname from the name of the castle. Since 1958 it has been protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. The castle was opened to the public after the repair in 1977. Today, the castle is under the wooden frame, but still open for people. In castle you will find an exhibition of the Regional Museum of Prague-East about life in the castle with period paintings and a model of the castle. The castle tower surpasses the surrounding plain and is used as a lookout tower over the local landscape.

History[editovat | editovat zdroj]

The first mention of the castle Jenštejn dates back to 1341, when it was owned by Jenec of Janovice, probably its builder. It is believed that it was founded sometime in the thirties of the 14th century. Only the lower part of the tower was preserved From this period of the castle, consisting of regular ashlar and adjacent walls.

In 1368, the royal chamber notary Pavel of Vlašim bought the castle. This branch of the family soon became a family from Jenštejn (they also took over the coat of arms - two vulture heads). Pavel z Vlašimi, the brother of Prague Archbishop Jan Očka of Vlašim, began to write in the middle of the 14th century as Paul of Jenštejn (“Paulus de Jenczenstein”). Pavel of Jenštejn had four childs: Martin, Pavel, Jan and Václav and everyone also used a nickname “from Jenštejn“. Jan became the third Prague archbishop in 1380 after his uncle Jan Oček of Vlašim. before he became the Archbishop of Prague, he spent his youth at Jenštejn and inherited the castle after death of his brother Martin. During his lifetime he made extensive reconstruction of the whole castle. Jan of Jenštejn was an important scholar and one of the most important figures of his timeline and so he needed representative place to show his position. Rebuilding has to reflected the importance and social prestige of its owner. The tower still bears typical features of the royalty castles: in addition to the profiling of the portals, it is the intentional use of the Štauf bossage masonry, mainly for aesthetic function. However, Jan soon got into disputes with Václav IV, who attacked the castle and then confiscated it in 1390. The king gave the castle to his favorite, under-chamberlain Sigismund Huller. John of Jenštejn was humiliated and forced to abdicate (1396), died in complete poverty and forgetting in 1400 in Rome. today's village flag is inspired by the coat of arms of family of Jenštejn.

In the following decades, the castle was owned by many owners (Oldřich of Černice of Kácov, Ctibor Čepec of Libiš, Jindřich of Aachen, Jan Libický of Libice and others). Between 1408 and 1414 Prokop Holý reportedly grew up in the castle. Finally, his last owner, Jan Dobřichovský of Dobřichov, who acquired the castle in 1560, but he drunk it, and when he died in 1583, the castle, at that time called the chateau, took the Czech Chamber due fines and added it in 1587 to the estate of Brandýs. Castle lost his sense, was not inhabited and quickly fell into disrepair, so that after ten years, in 1597, the governor of Brandýs Kašpar of Milštejn announced to the chamber that Jindřich Homut of Harasov asked "for an old truss with other wood in the abandoned chateau of Ještejn” (“o starý krov s jinejm dřívím v pustém zámku Jenštejnském”), but added that “over the same castle at the tower, still a piece of brickwork around 15 pairs of rafters is standing, with beams, hambalets… ” (“nad týmž zámkem při věži ještě kus krovu cihelného okolo 15 párů krokví stojí, s trámy, přednicemi, hambalky ...”), and perhaps at that time he still considered the repair of the building possible. However, no repairs were made, because the 1608´s record notes Jenštejn as an "old and derelict castle".

In 1640, during the Thirty Years' War, the castle was burned down by the Swedish army. After the Thirty Years' War, Jenštejn remained for a long time only burnt, ravaged, and empty grunts, according to the Brandýs urbary from 1651 "the Jenštejn fortress ... used to be bricks covered and with few rooms inside. It stands on a rock, around fortress is trench deep fill with water, a wooden bridge was over it, and it is all abandoned and so desolate. (“tvrz Jenštejn ... bývala cihlami přikryta a v ní pokojův nemnoho. Stojí na skále, okolo ní příkop dosti hluboký vodou napuštěný, přes něj býval most dřevěný, a to již všechno zpustlo a tak zpustlé stojí.”)

It was abandoned until the end of the 18th century when the castle was once again inhabited by several poor rural families, each with one floor. It was settled until the beginning of the 20th century. However, the families often interfered with the interior of the tower, which greatly damaged it. Their interventions were removed during the modern reconstruction. The material of the crumbling castle was also used by the locals to build their houses, which was in the case of abandoned settlements, churches, castle, etc. A common affair.

From 2016 until today, the exterior face of the tower is being preserved.

Building form[editovat | editovat zdroj]

Jenštejn was founded as a water castle in valley on a low sandstone rock. The deep, rock-cut moat could be filled with water from several lakes at Vinořský Creek at any time. Today, the moat is backfilled and built up by younger buildings. We do not know the form or position of the barbican.

An unusual oval shape excelled in the castle's layout and the 28-meter-high tower is the first to see. Castle core is triangular shape.The oldest building structure is located only in a sub-part of Bergfrit and the adjacent part of the wall, which is lined with smaller stones. Three palace wings surrounded the small courtyard. The north disappeared almost without a trace, because the rock below was largely excavated. From the front palace on the east side stayed a part of the courtyard wall with arched entrance to the basement. A small fragment of the portal lining in the same wall illustrates the height of the original entrance. The courtyard and parts of the side walls have been preserved from the third palace.

The dominant feature of the preserved part of the castle is a 28-meter-high round tower on which are three coats of arms of the owners carved from sandstone are placed at the entrance. On the second floor of the tower is a chapel on a circular ground plan. Through the tower leads a wooden spiral staircase. Remains of the circumferential walls of the former palace are preserved in the courtyard. The tower was raised by Jan of Jenštejn, which can be see in follow-up of narrower upper part to the wider lower one. This was used as a walkway for guards, later it was converted to a covered gallery. The original entrance was on the first floor after a drawbridge, but later a new one was created on the ground floor. The tower was covered with a stone helmet with four dormers, the remains of the roofing can be seen on the old engravings (still visible on 19th century engravings).

During the reconstruction of Jan of Jenštejn, a private chapel was built on the second floor of the round tower. The circular ground plan of the chapel is vaulted with a ribbed vault with a small smooth bolt in the middle. There is also a small pentagonal presbytery vaulted with a five-spoke ribbed vault and the same smooth stud. Presbytery is illuminated by a narrow angled window. Under the triumphal arch, which has simple geometrically indicated footings on the side of the presbytery, there is a stone altar with an archbishop's personal coat of arms. after the modern reconstruction was the chapel space added by the bust of Archbishop Jan of Jenštejn, the most important owner of the castle, which is a replica of the triforium in St. Vitus Cathedral.

In the lower part of the tower are cellars, which probably served as pantry and chambers. There are two more floors above the chapel, the first of which is entered by a narrow spiral staircase. There is usually small exhibition. Higher is unsheltered floor, accessible from ladder.