Hradečno Fortress

Hradečno, which is also called Starý zámek or Starý hrad, is a vanished fortress on the edge of the village of the same name in the Kladno district. It was most likely built by an unknown builder in the fourteenth century. Before the middle of the sixteenth century, the fortress was destroyed. What remained was a fortress site, which has been protected as a cultural monument since nineteen sixty-seven.

From the time when the fortress stood, no records about it were preserved. The first written mention of the village comes from an agreement about dividing the Smečno estate between Hynek Bořita z Martinic and his uncle. The fortress itself appears in sources for the first time in fifteen forty-two, but by then it was already deserted. It could have been built in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Around fourteen thirteen it possibly belonged to Hanuš z Neprobylic, who was referred to by his seat at Hradčany. However, his surname could also have referred to the Prague Hradčany.

The fortress rose up on a promontory between Šternberský potok and its unnamed right-bank tributary. From three sides, two fish ponds surrounded the promontory. From the upper fish pond, the embankment was preserved in the forest below the promontory, on the southern edge of the ditch. From the embankment of the larger fish pond, only a short section with a spillway remained to the southeast of the fortress site.

The core of the fortress was protected by a neck ditch fifteen to nineteen metres wide and ten metres deep. In front of it lay an unfortified outer ward. A section of a path and depressions were preserved from it, which could be remains of buildings. The core had a trapezoidal ground plan. The front side measured nineteen and a half metres and towards the northeast the platform narrowed down to ten metres.

At the head of the core stood a palace above the ditch. Behind it, on a slightly lower platform, lay a courtyard. The access path led over a bridge across the ditch and ended on a small platform in the southern corner of the core. From there it continued along a narrow palisade along the eastern wall to the gate leading into the courtyard.

A second ditch, up to fifteen metres wide, separates the end of the promontory. The water levels of both fish ponds connected in it. Behind this ditch lies a structure called Malý Starý zámek. It was previously considered to be a bastion, but it is most likely a remnant of a fish pond embankment.