Rogowiec Castle

Rogowiec Castle is a historic ruined castle in the northern part of the Suche Mountains in the Central Sudetes, on the Rogowiec hill at an altitude of 870 metres above sea level, west of the village of Grzmiąca.

From a wooden stronghold to a stone castle

In the twelfth century a wooden stronghold built by Duke Bolesław Wysoki stood on the hill. Around 1292 Duke Bolko I of Świdnica ordered a stone masonry castle to be built on the site. In the fourteenth century the castle was extended, with a residential tower and a semicircular bastion added. The upper castle had an irregular, roughly triangular shape covering around 700 square metres, with a round tower about 10 metres in diameter and walls up to 3.6 metres thick. A lower castle with two towers and an entrance gate adjoined the upper castle.

A fortress on the duchy's border

The castle served a military function as part of a chain of border fortifications along the Bohemian border, together with the castles of Radosno, Grodno and Nowy Dwór. It also protected the medieval trade route in the Rybna valley. In 1345 it served as a prison for political opponents during the war waged by Bolko II, and in 1353 it was listed among the fortresses of the Duchy of Świdnica-Jawor. The castle was managed by successive burgraves and castellans, and from 1429 to 1482 it belonged to the Schellendorf family.

Destruction and ruin

During the Hussite Wars the castle was seized and devastated, and in the fifteenth century it became a base for robber knights. In 1482 the forces of Matthias Corvinus, commanded by Georg von Stein, captured and destroyed the fortress so severely that it has remained a ruin ever since. Today fragments of the perimeter walls survive, along with scant remains of the towers and a fragment of a cylindrical tower about three metres high. Excavation work at the castle site is carried out by archaeology and ethnology students from the University of Wrocław.

Nearby

Rogowiec neighbours the peaks of Waligóra and Borowa, on which stands the Borowa Observation Tower. Further afield is also an underground complex from the Second World War, the Riese Włodarz Underground Complex.

Practical information

• Address: the Rogowiec hill near the village of Grzmiąca, Głuszyca municipality, Wałbrzych County
• Getting there: a yellow trail leads to the ruins from Głuszyca towards the PTTK "Andrzejówka" shelter, and at the foot of the hill run the Main Sudetes Trail (red trail) and the blue Rybnicki Grzbiet trail
• What to expect: a visit to ruins with no roofed interiors; the hill offers a panorama of the Owl Mountains, the Wałbrzych Mountains and the Kamienne Mountains