Najštejn Castle

The Najštejn is located at an altitude of approximately 560 metres above the Jirkovsky play, between the villages Březenec and Květnov, less than 6 kilometres north of Chomutova. The castle is protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. The local tradition also knows it under the names Neustein, Lapis Novus, Najnštejn or Nanštejn.

The castle was probably built in the first half of the fourteenth century by Jetrich of Alamsdorf, a nobleman remembered since 1323. The oldest written mention dates back to 1363, when Jetřich's descendants Jan a Hugo z Alamsdorfu had a new altar built in St. Linhart's Church in March. The fate of the castle was broken in 1381, when Fricolt z Alamsdorfu sold the village Břenec order of German knights in Chomutov. This move has allegedly solved the long-term hostility between the two parties. Soon after, the castle itself fell into order. It seems that already in the 14th century it was abandoned and over time it fell into oblivion. The interesting thing is that the House of Alamsdorfski was a possible founder of the nearby castle Hausberk.

Najštejn was one of the castles in which the palace formed the main defensive and residential building. The base of the castle was separated from the rest of the island by a boulder and moat; at best conservation sites reaches a depth of five to seven metres. There was a two-dimensional rectangular palace in front, 16 long and 10 metres wide, from which only the insignificant foundations of the perimeter walls were preserved. The archeoclave findings corps contained fragments of ceramic tiles decorated with the relief of the coronation of the Virgin Mary. The back part of the island is formed by a rock excavation with a natural crack, which is closed by a wall with a shooting of unclear age. The front was protected by a massive moat up to 20 metres wide, broken directly into the rock. Both sides of the ditch are accompanied by piles of broken stone - a material prepared as a building stone for the planned expansion of the castle, but it never occurred after taking over the premises. Not far from the castle, about a hundred metres from the bank of the dam, the remains of the Telšský mill are spread in the valley of Bílina with the drive carved directly in the rock.

The visitor goes to the castle from the village Květnov along a narrow road towards Orazín. After less than 200 metres, a smaller asphalt road leading east to the Telsška grove house is separated. From there, the forest path continues along approximately one kilometre straight to the remaining castle torso. There are deep trenches and ramparts, through which time and nature gradually reworked the medieval structure, and a attentive pilgrim will discover even the modest remains of the palace - a silent testimony of the time that once inhabited him.