Hlavačov (Lužná) Castle

North of Rakovník, more than a kilometer beyond the town, rises the elongated forested hill Hlavačov. At its end, at a height of around four hundred meters above sea level, the ramparts and ditches of a medieval royal castle have been preserved to this day. It lies in the cadastral territory of the municipality of Lužná and its remains are protected as a cultural monument. We do not know the castle's original name. From the middle of the thirteenth century, the Latin designation castellum vetus, meaning Old Castle, appears in sources.

The site was settled as far back as prehistoric times. During the older Iron Age, there stood a settlement of the Hallstatt culture. An archaeological excavation in nineteen seventy-four uncovered the remains of a palisade and an area paved with pebbles. The oldest pottery shards belong to the Bylanská culture from the eighth to the beginning of the sixth century before our era. Due to the unusual location and method of fortification, it is believed that this was not a fortified settlement, but a fortified manor.

In the Middle Ages, the surrounding area belonged to the Rokytná region, named after the Rokytná river, the later Rakovnický stream. It is already mentioned in charters from Vyšehrad from the first half of the twelfth century. Where the administrative stronghold of Rokytná stood, however, is not certain. The historian Renner allowed for the possibility of Hlavačov. Other scholars search for it near Senomaty at the confluence of the Rakovnický and Petrovický streams, in a place long called Na Hradišti, where, however, no fortifications were found. The historian Václav Kočka saw an extensive economic manor there. By the first half of the thirteenth century, in any case, the castle on Hlavačov held the administration of the region.

The castle apparently had a connection to the nearby Křivoklát. It probably arose in the twelfth century, at the latest at the beginning of the thirteenth century, thus even before the founding of Křivoklát. That was called Hrádek Křivoklát in the Middle Ages, perhaps in distinction from the older and much more extensive fortified settlement of Křivoklát, about which the chronicler Kosmas wrote at the beginning of the twelfth century. Its location is not known and it cannot be ruled out that it stood right on Hlavačov.

According to the archaeologist Tomáš Durdík, it was a castle of a transitional type, similar to the nearby Angerbach. It had timber and clay ramparts and half-timbered buildings, stone was used here only minimally. It belonged to the most extensive castles of its kind. Perhaps an early medieval fortified settlement already stood in its place. The castle probably ceased to exist in the second half of the thirteenth century.