Frýdberk Castle

Frýdberk was a Silesian castle in the town that today bears the name Žulová. From the castle, the main defensive tower, the bergfrit, was primarily preserved, and it now serves as the bell tower of the parish church. The church together with the castle tower is protected as a cultural monument.

The castle is first mentioned in the foundation book of the Wrocław bishops from the time of Bishop Henry the First of Vrbno, that is from the years 1302 to 1319. According to it, it was built by the knight John of Wüstehube near the village of Sestrechovice. His family also held territory on the Moravian side of the border, especially the castle Kolštejn, and from Frýdberk they controlled the entire borderland between the bishop's domain and Moravia and Kłodzko. The Wüstehube family at that time harmed ecclesiastical institutions of the Wrocław diocese. By 1340, the castle already belonged to Henry Haugvic, and after him to his sons Henry and Václav, robber knights who mainly damaged the bishop's property.

The castle had an oval core surrounded by a wall and a freestanding bergfrit, similarly to the nearby Kaltenštejn or Rychlebský castle. Where the palace stood can only be guessed.

In 1358, the castle along with extensive domains was purchased for a high price by Wrocław bishop Przeclav of Pohořelé, and the history of the robber nest ended there. The castle became an important stronghold of the bishops, who appointed castellans from the local nobility here. Apparently at the beginning of the Hussite Wars, the fortification was supplemented with a palisade. In the mid-fifteenth century, the castle was pawned due to economic difficulties and later entrusted as a hereditary fief to the Kotulín family. From the widow of the last of them, the bishop bought it back.

The castle then rather deteriorated until in 1582 Bishop Martin Gerstmann had it extensively rebuilt, and in 1613 the tower received a striking clock. Even this primarily representative reconstruction did not protect the castle during the Thirty Years' War. In 1639, Swedish and Polish forces captured it and largely destroyed it. It could not be converted into a modern fortress, and so it lost its significance, and in 1703 it was converted into a brewery.

When Žulová became a town and strived to have its own parish, in 1805 Wrocław bishop Joseph Christian Francis of Hohenlohe donated the castle grounds and buildings for the construction of the church of Saint Joseph. The church was built in the years 1809 to 1810. A nave was attached to the preserved bergfrit, and from two sides the perimeter wall of the castle's core remained, which delimited the cemetery. From the official brewery building, a vicarage was created. In this form, the church has served ever since as an interesting rarity.