Valečov
Landmark · Boseň · Czechia
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One of Bohemian Paradise's most striking rock castles, its walls and chambers carved straight into sandstone outcrops above Boseň. Built after 1300 by the Valečov family, burned by Jindřich z Vartenberka in 1439 for their Hussite loyalties, and later home to a squatter village evicted only in 1892.
The castle's lowest chambers are carved straight into the sandstone rock, with the upper walls and a stone palace built on top; the outer bailey held rock-cut dwellings, a prison and a starvation pit. The Valečov family built the first, wooden version of the castle here after 1300, and their support for Jan Žižka's Hussites brought retaliation: Jindřich z Vartenberka stormed and burned it in 1439. The family rebuilt in stone over the following two centuries and, under George of Poděbrady, added proper fortifications and outbuildings. The Battle of White Mountain ended Valečov's life as a noble seat; confiscated and left to decay, its rock-cut outer bailey became home to the rural poor, who lived there until gendarmes forcibly relocated the last residents to the poorhouse in 1892. The Czech Tourist Club began securing the ruin against stone-robbers in 1914, and it has been a protected monument since 1967. The village of Boseň has owned the castle since 1994 and keeps it open to visitors through the warmer months.
What you see
Sandstone outcrops carry the ruin's walls straight out of the rock; chambers, a former prison and a starvation pit are cut into the stone of the outer bailey, and a narrow cleft in the rock leads through to a lookout point fitted with a coin-operated telescope.
Practical
Open daily except Monday, 9am-6pm, May through August; weekends and holidays only, 9am-4pm, in April, September and October. Night tours run by prior arrangement. Parking is about 300 m from the castle.
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Common questions
- Why stop at Valečov on a bike ride?
- One of Bohemian Paradise's most striking rock castles, its walls and chambers carved straight into sandstone outcrops above Boseň. Built after 1300 by the Valečov family, burned by Jindřich z Vartenberka in 1439 for their Hussite loyalties, and later home to a squatter village evicted only in 1892.
- Where is Valečov?
- Valečov is in Boseň, Czechia (Czech Republic).