About twelve miles southeast of Strakonice, in the southwestern corner of what is now Czechia and what was once known as Bohemia, there is a quaint medieval town that now has about half the population that it did during the 1890's. Bavorov is now a town of about sixteen hundred people, and has changed little in the past century. Nor will it; the town center is considered a historic site, and is protected by Czech law as a major part of Czech history. Near the town square is one of the most important Gothic buildings in South Bohemia, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, built sometime in the fourteenth century.
Though not as imposing or grand as Notre Dame de Paris, the church is strikingly beautiful, and its two towers stand tall above the medieval village, making it a landmark which can be seen for miles from the rolling countryside. The town is idyllic, but a bit bland when compared with more famous Gothic landmarks like the capital city of Czechia, Prague itself. Three and a half miles west of Bavorov, however, stand the imposing ruins of Helfenburk Castle, which remain as impressive and eerie today as they have been for hundreds of years.
History of Bavorov
Bavorov was a small settlement of mostly medieval peasants until 1315, when John Bavor the third built the historic square and began work on the surrounding streets. The town is mentioned by name as early as 1228, and was named for some ancestor of John Bavor, who came from the line of noble Bavors that ruled Strakonice, twelve miles away. At the time, there was no Czech Republic, and Bavorov was considered part of Bohemia. At the time when my short story, Saint Nicholas Day, takes place in 1893 (shameless plug: you can download it for free here), Bavorov would have been part of Austria-Hungary, but was still often referred to as Bohemia. It was not until 1918 that the country regained its independence and was renamed Czechoslovakia, signifying the unification of the Czech and the Slovak peoples into one unified country. When Czechoslovakia dissolved in 1992, the name was shortened to simply 'Czech Republic', and in 2016, the country was officially named 'Czechia', but if this is the first you've heard of it, don't feel too bad; since the invention of credit cards, nobody writes Czechs anymore. (Ba-dum tss)
Once word got around that Bavorov had paved streets, important people began showing interest. In the 1350's, the Rosenberg (or Rožemberk) family purchased Bavorov, and made it the seat of their estate. They were a powerful family in Bohemia for several centuries and served at the royal court in Prague. In 1354, the then King of Bohemia, Charles Wenceslaus, also known as Charles of Luxembourg or more famously, Charles IV, King of the Romans, traveled across the alps to Milan, where he received the Lombard Crown, and then to Rome, where he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by a cardinal of Pope Clement. Charles Wenceslaus returned to Luxembourg after spending only a few days in Rome. He traveled in peace, and without an army, but records indicate that several nobles accompanied him, including four brothers from the Rosenberg family.
The beginning of Helfenburk
As a reward for their service, the four Rosenberg brothers were given the rights to Bavorov as a free town, and they began the construction of Helfenburk Castle for its defense. Before this, the Rosenbergs had only a wooden fortress near the town of Bavorov, which had been abandoned even before permission to build Helfenburk had been granted. Helfenburk's entire purpose was to defend Bavorov, and it lacks all the intricate architecture of more elaborate castles. Though it does contain what is technically called a 'palace', Helfenburk never evolved past a bulwark of defense.. Helfenburk was a fortress of strictly utilitarian standards, which is likely why it was abandoned as the power and wealth of the Rosenbergs grew, and why there were only few efforts made to preserve it.
Helfenburk was inherited by Jindrich the third, the son of Jan Rosenberg, who was one of the four brothers. By this time, Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Romans, was dead, and his son, Václav IV, ruled Bohemia as King of Bohemia and King of the Germans, though he lacked the other, more prestigious title which his father had been given by Rome. For reasons unknown, Václav disliked Jindrich, and used all his political power against him, even uniting with Jan Žižka, who was a Hussite, and therefore a heretic to the Catholic beliefs of Václav. The castle quickly came into the possession of Jindrich's cousin, Oldřch the second, the son of Oldřch the first, another of the four brothers who originally started work on the castle.
The Hussite Reformation
Shortly after this, Bohemia broke into civil war, as the Hussites grew increasingly powerful. Jan Hus was one of Europe's earliest reformers, and was popular among many noble families, including the king's wife. His death in 1415, burned at the stake as a heretic, started a civil war which lead to the Bohemian Reformation, and held sway in Bohemia for two hundred years. Jan Žižka was a staunch supporter of Hus, and was a leading general for the Hussite armies, using his military genius to give the Hussites a strong advantage early in the war by building armored wagons, filled with cannons and muskets, which demolished the cavalry of the Holy Roman Empire. The effectiveness of these medieval tanks would not be improved upon until five hundred years later in the first world war. He was able to lead an army of medieval peasants against the greatest empire in the world, and succeed.
Žižka is considered a national hero in Czechia, and he is immortalized in Prague, dressed in his armor and mounted upon a horse, in memorial of his victory over the armies of Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, on Vitkov hill. It is the third largest statue of its kind in the world. His accomplishments are far too many to cover here, but I plan to write more about Žižka and the Hussite Rebellion in a future article, as his life and exploits are not only remarkable in themselves, but also an inspiring example of those who have fought for liberty and freedom to worship God according to their own conscience, and like the Founding Fathers of America, helped to create a sanctuary of religious freedom which lasted for two hundred years. I will have to find a way to include him in a future book.
Helfenburk is abandoned
During the Hussite Reformation, Helfenburk was controlled by Oldřch the second, who was a Catholic. When it appeared that the Hussite Rebellion had failed, Oldřch arrested every Hussite priest and imprisoned them at Helfenburk, where at least two perished. After the victories of the Hussites, the castle passed into various hands, including Václav Vlček, who was a man well-versed in the art of military defense. He strengthened the defenses of Helfenburk and built additional walls to protect the central keep. After his death, the castle was purchased back by the Rosenbergs, who had originally built the castle, but in the years since, their holdings had increased, and Helfenburk, designed for defense, rather than luxury, and filled with weapons, rather than riches, was not worth the trouble of maintaining. Vilém Rosenberg attempted to restore the castle in 1551, and made some minor improvements, but ultimately gave up his attempt, and left the castle abandoned. After his death, Helfenburk and the surrounding estate was sold by Vilém's younger brother and successor, Petr Vok, to the nearby town of Prachatice, though some sources claim it was sold to Bavorov. While Bavorov makes more sense, as it stands closer to Bavorov, the official Helfenburk website indicates it was sold to Prachatice, instead.
The End of Liberty
The Battle of White Mountain, also called the Battle of Bílá Hora, in 1620 was the end of the Hussite Reformation. White Mountain was a low plateau outside Prague, and ushered in a period of dark decline on what had once been a prosperous nation. Since the success of the Hussite Rebellion led by Jan Žižka, Bohemia had a large population of Protestants, both among the peasants and the nobility, even though they were still technically under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. After Žižka's early successes against the armies of Rome, Bohemia was left mostly to themselves for the next two hundred years, but after replacing the tolerant Emperor Matthias in 1617, Ferdinand the second, Matthias' cousin and a staunch Catholic, became Holy Roman Emperor. While Matthias had honored the Letter of Majesty, written by Rudolph the second in 1609, which promised religious liberty to Bohemia, Ferdinand ignored the agreement, and worked to force the Catholic faith on his subjects.
The Protestant noblemen of Bohemia arranged a meeting in Prague with the new Emperor, hoping to find a peaceful resolution to the impasse, after several violent riots, one of which resulted in a new word: defenestration. In an open act of rebellion, several of the more violent members of the Hussites threw a judge, a burgomaster, and several town council members out of a window, likely to their deaths.
At the meeting in Prague, things went hardly better, and the final outcome resulted only in a reversal. Two Protestant nobles and their scribe were violently thrown from the window of the meeting chamber, and were seriously injured. Since then, the term 'defenestration', which literally means to be thrown through a window, was forever linked to the concept of political upheaval. This unpleasant welcome in Prague triggered a full-scale revolt, and Ferdinand, though still Holy Roman Emperor, was replaced by Frederick as King of Bohemia. Ferdinand quickly retaliated, sending an army of twenty-five thousand seasoned troops to sack Prague. Frederick managed to raise an army of thirty-thousand, and his general, Christian Anhalt, force-marched his troops to Prague, managing to reach the city first, and assemble on White Mountain in time to meet the invading army. Both sides filled their ranks primarily from hired mercenaries, but the weather was cold, and several defeats in minor skirmishes before the attack on Prague had demoralized the Protestants' army of mercenaries, and their commander, who feared defeat, and had therefore withheld payment to his mercenaries until after the battle.
The battle lasted only an hour. The hired troops of the Protestant army, cold and unpaid, broke apart under the more seasoned troops of Emperor Ferdinand. King Frederick and his family were forced to flee the country. On June 21st 1621, forty-seven of the Protestant leaders were put to trial for their crimes, and twenty-seven were martyred. After the Protestant defeat, eighty percent of the Bohemian nobility fled the country, and their property was confiscated. Helfenburk was among these confiscated estates, though it had been abandoned, and would remain abandoned, though it changed hands several times more in the following centuries. The Battle of White Mountain was a crushing blow for the Protestants, but inspired other countries to take up the banner, or risk losing all hope of religious liberty.
Ferdinand quickly outlawed all practices of the Calvinist faith, requiring them to convert or be exiled. Several attempts were made to 'peacefully' convert the Bohemians to the Catholic faith, and many Bohemians rejoined the Catholic church, but there were still holdouts. Ferdinand did not stop by banning Calvanism. He considered all beliefs not sanctioned by the Catholic church to be heretical, and in 1627, he extended the ban to exile those of the Lutheran faith as well. Though Bohemia did not suffer the deaths and torture which the Holy Roman Empire enacted in other countries, the forced exile left the country vacant. Over two thirds of the population left their homeland, and Bohemia never recovered the status it had once held. Before the war, Bohemia contained some hundred and fifty thousand farmsteads, and a population of three million. After Ferdinand ousted the majority of the nobility, and exiled all Protestants who refused to convert, the number of farmsteads dropped to fifty thousand, and the population dropped to only eight-hundred thousand, less than a third of what it had been. In sharp contrast to the prosperous liberty of the two hundred years before, the following two hundred years are considered by local historians to be the country's Dark Ages. They which lasted up until the eighteenth century, when a movement started to restore the national identity.
Helfenburk in Legend
Helfenburk was a relatively minor holding among the many which Ferdinand confiscated from the fleeing Protestant nobles, and it remained abandoned, falling into disrepair. It would never again be occupied by nobility. It was during this long period of abandonment that the many legends surrounding Helfenburk appeared. It is now impossible to know which legends are merely stories, and which retain some element of truth. The castle was used as a shelter by the homeless at various times throughout the following centuries, which likely contributed to the stories. Several legends include mention of the devil. One such legend regards a musician who found a black cat near Helfenburk, which he adopted. Later, he met a man at Helfenburk, who asked him to play for his friends. The man agreed, but discovered at the end of his performance that his audience was made entirely of cats. The man then rationally concluded that the man he had met was his own black kitten, and it was no dangerous leap to also conclude that, being a shape-shifter, his cat was also the devil. It is unknown how this strange legend began, but my personal theory is that it involved a musician, several stray cats, and a large quantity of alcohol.
Another legend regards a treasure which only appears on Good Friday. A local farmer attempted to find this treasure at some point, but was frightened away by a man who he assumed was the devil. It is unlikely that any treasure was ever stored at Helfenburk, which was strictly a utilitarian measure of defense, and was supplied only with weaponry and the bare essentials necessary to withstand a siege. However, there is likely some truth to this legend. During the early sixteenth century, Želízko of Tourov lived alone in the castle for three years, firing all the servants and staff. Hermits seem to inspire rumors in all centuries, and it is possible that the idea of a hidden treasure arose from this time. The fact that the castle was occasionally occupied by vagrants is proof that the farmer certainly could have seen a stranger at the castle, and been frightened away. Recent work to renovate the castle have uncovered two basement levels, and there may even be a third, but to date, no treasure has been uncovered. But, since it is unlikely that the renovations were done on Good Friday, this isn't surprising.
One particularly strange story which seems to have some element of truth involves a young boy who falls within the more legendary ranks of the fictional Mowgli and Tarzan, and the very real ranks of Dina Sanichar, and Peter the Wild Boy. According to legend, the child was discovered around Helfenburk surviving on nuts and roots, and apparently feral. Several documented cases of feral children do exist. Some have been successfully civilized, while others have not. According to legend, the child discovered at Helfenburk was successfully civilized, but I have found no evidence to prove his existence or subsequent civilization, but the story bears enough similarity to other real cases that it is possibly true.
Helfenburk today
The castle became the property of the state in 1922. In the 1930's, the board of State Forests and Estates made some repairs and reopened the castle to visitors. In 1977, the south tower was rebuilt and remodeled into a lookout tower. The Act of Municipalities was passed in the 1990's, and gave ownership of Helfenburk back to the town of Bavorov. Bavorov continues to maintain the castle ruins, and often uses them for special events, such as educational shows, medieval reenactments, and the occasional wedding. Tourists today can make requests to visit the castle, and even spend the night under the stars, so long as they follow the guidelines and gain prior permission from the Bavorov town hall. The castle can be reached through a narrow path cut deeply into the rocky hill and up to the main gate. Though there are no secret passages or hidden treasures, nor any werewolf buried in silver by a Bavorovian Krampus impersonator, the castle presents some of the most incredible views of the South Bohemian countryside, and an excellently spooky place to spend a dark night.
For more information abour Bavorov, Helfenburk, the Hussite Wars, or my free short story, Saint Nicholas Day, check out these links:
Hussite Wars - Blog Post by Erin Naillon
History of the Hussites - Prague Tourist Guide
Helfenburk Castle - visit Czech Republic
Bavorov - Wikipedia
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