Chojnik Castle Chojnik Castle ( , 1945 – 1948 ) is a castle located above the town of Sobieszów , today part of Jelenia Góra in southwestern Poland . Its remains stand on top of the Chojnik hill ( ) within the Karkonosze National Park , overlooking the Jelenia Góra valley . The building of the fortress dates back to the times of the Silesian Piasts and for most of its time was in the possession of the Schaffgotsch noble family . Today the semi - ruined stronghold is a major tourist attraction and houses a hotel and a restaurant . History . The castle of Chojnik was originally erected by the order of Duke Bolko I the Strict in 1292 at the site of a former hunting lodge built by his father Bolesław II the Bald . The fortress was meant to protect the borders of Bolkos Duchy of Jawor against the menacing Wenceslaus II of Bohemia . Bolko ' s grandson Bolko II the Small , the last independent Piast duke , had the castle reconstructed starting from 1355 . After Bolko II had died without issue in 1368 , his widow Agnes von Habsburg sold the castle to one of the courtiers , the knight Gotsche Schoff . Gotsche II Schoff modernized and expanded the castle in 1393 . In the same year he donated the Gothic chapel , which was completed in 1403 . The chapel devoted to Saint Catherine and Saint George featured artful paintings preserved until World War II . The castle survived the next centuries without damages . It withstood the attacks by the Hussites in 1426 and by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary , who after his campaign of 1469 destroyed many Silesian castles . In 1529 Ulrich I von Schaffgotsch expanded the building with two forecourts , depots and a pillory , and at the end of the 16th century Renaissance modifications were carried out . During the Thirty Years ' War Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch , Lord of Kynast - though a Protestant - after the 1620 Battle of White Mountain supported Emperor Ferdinand II and served as a general in the Imperial army under Albrecht von Wallenstein . After Wallenstein ' s persecution and assassination in 1634 Schaffgotsch as his liegeman was arrested , accused of high treason and executed one year later . Ferdinand II seized his property and had Kynast castle occupied by his troops , who resisted the attacks of the Swedish forces . Ferdinand III added new bastions to the castle in 1648 and finally restituted it to Christoph Leopold von Schaffgotsch , Hans Ulrich ' s son , in 1650 . Still during the latter ' s lifetime , in 1675 , the castle that has never been conquered burnt down completely after being struck by lightning and was not reconstructed . The comital family relocated down into the valley to the old palace of " Warmbrunn " ( today Cieplice Śląskie - Zdrój ) and the destroyed castle became a tourist attraction already in the early 18th century . It was visited by the Prussian royal family and poets like Heinrich von Kleist and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as well as Theodor Körner , who immortalized the ruin in one of his poems and made it famous all over Germany . 1822 the Schaffgotschs added a tavern and harbourage to the castle and three years later rebuilt the tower . In the 1920s the old legends were resuscitated by Waldemar Müller - Erhardt , and in the next years these folk plays were performed there . The ruins remained in the property of the Schaffgotsch dynasty until in 1945 the family was expelled . In 1964 the Polish state restored the ruins and rebuilt the mountain hut . Kunegunda legend . The ruins of Chojnik are tied to the myth of Kunegunda , a castle lord ' s daughter desired by many knights . As she had no intention to enter into marriage she promised to espouse the bold man who would complete a circuit along the castle ' s walls on a horseback , knowing that on the steep slopes horse and rider must fall into the chasm . Many tried and perished until a proud nobleman came along , who appealed to Kunegunda ' s eyes . Though she declared to abandon the precondition and to marry him right away , the knight insisted to take the risk and he succeeded . Instead of accepting her proposal he scolded her for her cruelty and departed . Kunegunda however , deeply humiliated , lunged into the abyss herself .