Oráčov Ruin

Oráčov is a vanished castle near the village of the same name in the Rakovnicko region. It stood approximately one kilometer and two hundred meters southwest of the village, on a promontory of Zámecký vrch above the Leština stream, at an elevation of five hundred meters. Since nineteen sixty-five, it has been protected as a cultural monument. Only inconspicuous terrain remains of its fortifications have been preserved. In the second ditch grows a large-leaved linden tree, which is protected as a notable tree.

The castle had a short life. According to archaeological findings, it was built in the second half of the thirteenth century and was abandoned already in the first half of the fourteenth century. There is only a single written mention relating to the castle from the year twelve ninety-five. It mentions Odolen z Oráčova and is at the same time the first written record of the village. Other members of the family from Oráčova are known from the Plzeňsko and Žluticko regions. The village later belonged to the Petrohradské estate. When the estate was being sold in fourteen eighty-three, the fortified house in Oráčov is listed as abandoned.

The castle is mainly documented by finds from surface collection. Archaeologists obtained a quantity of ceramic fragments here, a piece of sandstone, a turned bone buckle, and a piece of corroded iron sheet about four by four centimeters in size, possibly a fragment of armor. Most of the ceramic ware that can be dated comes from the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Only two fragments are significantly older. They could have been brought here from elsewhere, or they might indicate that the site was settled earlier.

The fortifications and buildings were apparently predominantly wooden. The castle consisted of two parts. The elongated outer ward measuring roughly twenty-six by fifty meters shows no traces of buildings. It was protected by a neck ditch with a rampart. Where a field of boulders spreads on the steeper slope, the ditch and rampart are absent. The terrain of the outer ward rises and the difference between its lowest and highest point reaches approximately sixteen meters.

On the western side, a second neck ditch with a ditch separated the outer ward from the castle core. The inner castle rises about six meters above the bottom of this ditch and two and a half meters above the outer ward. No further fortifications are apparent here. On the other sides, the castle was adequately protected by steep slopes. The only possible remains of building structures could be a rectangular depression measuring roughly two by four meters on the northeastern edge of the core.