Castles & ruins 4: Bezdez, CZ

Castle Bezdez unlike other medieval buildings of 13th century was build primarily as king's seat – it didn't had any barns or warehouses but had towers, the church and magnificent king's palace. The building itself is a rare representation of early gothic architecture of Burgund style in Eastern Europe.

The castle was build by order of Czech king  Přemysl Otakar II, unfortunately right after his death it was used as prison for his son and his widow by  Margrave Otto V of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, nicknamed Otto the Tall, who took over the kingdom.

The castle occupies the whole mountain ridge of the same name which is cca 600m high by itself, the castle towers originally might've been 30m and 40m high given wide view on surrounding landscape.

It is said that during crusade wars the castle lady Brunhild was living in Bezdez, waiting for her husband knight to come back from the Holy Land. She took a good care of the castle and villages around, as wise landlady will do and as well she was known for her deep knowledge in medicine.

Once at night there were strange visitor in the castle – the dwarf who asked politely for lady' help. Brunhild agreed and went with the dwarf to the tunnels to find out that actually castle is connected to the dwarf underground kingdom. 

The dwarf king met Brunhild and beg her to treat his sick daughter. Brunhild saw little girl almost dying and used all her skill to cure the dwarf princess. The dwarfs were so happy to see princess healthy again that they gave Brunhild lots of treasures and the princess gave Brunhild her preciouses crystal goblet from which she was drinking all her medicine. The dwarf king told Brunhild that goblet brings luck and wealth to the owners, so she should look after it and protect it at all cost so it will bring riches to her descendants as well.

So it happened that goblet was in Brunhild family for generations and all of them were prosperous and happy.

One of Brunhild descendants was jolly Hadmar I of Kuenring famous minstrel and party lover. During one of the feasts he was so drunk that recklessly broke precious goblet. Everyone at the party gathered in shock around old heirloom but he only laughed and throwed away the shards. 

The party went on and only on the morning Hadmar discovered that one of the knights kidnapped  his daughter and disappeared. He sent all his servants in all directions to chase the knight and run for him by himself, and the moment he rode out of the castle the huge fire broke up and destroyed Bezdez.