Castle ruins

Stajice (Stejc) castle

Maršovice

Stajice Castle was founded by the knightly family of the Lords of Stajice on the top of Stejc Hill (466 m above sea level) between Maršovice and Zderadice sometime during the first half of the 14th century. The Knights of Stajice are relatives of the Drslavics. In 1348, the first documented owner of the castle, Jindřich of Stajice, is mentioned in the charter of Charles IV.

After him, his sons - Přibík and Bernard - own the castle. The first mention of both is from 1364. In 1388 Přibík sold the farmstead in Homolová Lhota to Hynek Drbal of Neveklov. The last mention of him is from 1391. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries several members of the knightly family from Stajice are documented - Ješek Stajička (serving the Rožmberks in 1393), Přibík Stajička or a certain Albera - none of them, however, holds the castle. The last of the Stajice family is mentioned in 1454 as Jindřich.

Since the end of the 14th century Stajice has been the seat of the Lapps. In 1406 the castle was occupied by the garrison of the governor Mutina. The detachment hired by Herbart of Kolovrat in Rochov and Petřík, the burgrave of Lehnice, was to harm the nearby goods of the South Bohemian Rožmberks. The castle was finally taken over during the riots during the reign of George of Poděbrady. In 1467, the Rožmberk soldiers conquered it a second time and since then the castle has remained abandoned. There is no written record of it. It was not until 1542 that Aleš Karlík of Nežetice ceded his inherited property to Ludmila Karlíková of Vítěněvsi to settle his debt: the deserted castle of Stajice, the fortress and the ash court in Zderadice and parts of the villages of Libeč and Řehovice. In the contract the castle is already mentioned as deserted. Jan Kosohorský of Říčany na Maršovice became the next owner of Stajice. From that moment on, the fate of Stajice is linked to the owners of Maršovice.

The castle was in two parts. Apart from the eastern side, where the foot of the slope ends deep below the castle core, it was surrounded by a rampart and a moat. The rampart is nowadays broken twice on the western side. The northern break in the rampart was probably the entrance to the castle. The pear-shaped part of the site to the north shows fragmentary remains of a rectangular building. The second slightly more southerly and higher part of the former castle contains the remains of a building cut into the rock. It is hypothesised that these are the remains of a square tower. On the southern slope, a few metres below the core of the castle, another structure was located, but is now largely covered over. It may have been a water tank. At the south-eastern foot of the entire rock homole, another unspecified structure can be considered.

Several archaeological finds have been made at the castle. Among the objects found and now lost are a large medieval key, seals of Benesek of Stajice and Hanus of Maršovice. In the mid-1970s, archaeologist Tomáš Durdík carried out a surface survey of the castle, and twenty years later, members of the Šternberk Homeland History Club carried out similar work. The found objects can be dated back to the middle of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century. Nowadays, all the masonry is covered by earth and lush vegetation. The place where the castle used to stand is reminiscent only of uneven terrain and ramparts.

Map

Mapa
Location
Maršovice
GPS: 49,72215655°N 14,55696461°E