page_title: Jenštejn Castle
section_title: Destruction of castle
hierarchical_section_title: Jenštejn Castle / History / Destruction of castle
caption_attribution_description: Česky: Jenštejn
context_page_description: Jenštejn Castle is a castle ruin in the village of Jenštejn in the district of Prague-east in the Central Bohemian Region. The small town of Jenštejn was founded with a small, water-protected castle in the first half of the 14th century by Jenc of Janovice, a high ranking official in court yard, in 1336-1361. Lords of Jenštejn have their family name from the name of the castle. Since 1958 it has been protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. The castle was opened to the public after the reconstruction in 1977. Today is the castle is under the wooden frame, but still open for people. In the castle it is possible to find an exhibition of the Regional Museum of Prague-East about life in the castle with period paintings and a model of the castle. The castle tower surpasses the surrounding plain and is used as a lookout tower over the local landscape.
context_section_description: In the following decades, the castle was owned by many owners (Oldřich of Černice of Kácov, Ctibor Čepec of Libiš, Jindřich of Aachen, Jan Libický of Libice and others). Between 1408 and 1414 Prokop Holý reportedly grew up in the castle. Finally, his last owner was Jan Dobřichovský of Dobřichov, who acquired the castle in 1560, but he drunk it, and when he died in 1583, the castle, at that time called the chateau, took the Czech Chamber due fines and added it in 1587 to the estate of Brandýs. Castle lost his sense, was not inhabited and quickly fell into disrepair, so that after ten years, in 1597, the governor of Brandýs Kašpar of Milštejn announced to the chamber that Jindřich Homut of Harasov asked "for an old truss with other wood in the abandoned chateau of Ještejn” (“o starý krov s jinejm dřívím v pustém zámku Jenštejnském”), but added that “over the same castle at the tower, still a piece of brickwork around 15 pairs of rafters is standing, with beams, hambalets… ” (“nad týmž zámkem při věži ještě kus krovu cihelného okolo 15 párů krokví stojí, s trámy, přednicemi, hambalky ...”), and perhaps at that time he still considered the repair of the building possible. However, no repairs were made, because the 1608´s record notes Jenštejn as an "old and derelict castle".
  In 1640, during the Thirty Years' War, the castle was burned down by the Swedish army. After the Thirty Years' War, Jenštejn remained for a long time only burnt, ravaged, and empty grunts, according to the Brandýs urbary from 1651 "the Jenštejn fortress ... used to be bricks covered and with few rooms inside. It stands on a rock, around fortress is trench deep fill with water, a wooden bridge was over it, and it is all abandoned and so desolate. (“tvrz Jenštejn ... bývala cihlami přikryta a v ní pokojův nemnoho. Stojí na skále, okolo ní příkop dosti hluboký vodou napuštěný, přes něj býval most dřevěný, a to již všechno zpustlo a tak zpustlé stojí.”)
  It was abandoned until the end of the 18th century when the castle was once again inhabited by several poor rural families, each family owned one floor. It was settled until the beginning of the 20th century. However, the families often interfered with the interior of the tower, which greatly damaged it. Their interventions were removed during the modern reconstruction. The material of the crumbling castle was also used by the locals to build their houses, which was in the case of abandoned settlements, churches, castle, etc, which is a common affair.
  From 2016 until today (2019), the exterior facade of the tower is being preserved under wooden construction.
caption: castle without scaffolding
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