Czech Republic · 13th century
Valdštejn Castle (Czech: hrad Valdštejn, German: Waldstein) is an early Gothic fortress near Turnov, in the Czech Republic. It can be found in the cliff dwelling city of Hruboskalsko, in the Bohemian Paradise (Český ráj).
The city was built on three sandstone cliffs in the second half of the thirteenth century by Counts of the Waldstein family. After 1420 the castle was occupied by the Hussites, then later by robber barons. In 1621 the abandoned castle was bought back by the Waldsteins, whose most illustrious member was Albrecht von Wallenstein. During the peak of the Baroque period, they built a pilgrimage church, dedicated to John of Nepomuk, in 1722 on the ruins of the castle.
Text adapted from “Valdštejn Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Valdštejn Castle ranks #2,351 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #55 of the 243 mapped in Czech Republic. Founded c. 1300, it is older than 61% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 1080 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,586 times in the last 60 days, more than 75% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 55,000 visitors in 2022. 14 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Liberec, 24 km away. It is one of the 189 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Bohemia. See how Czech Republic compares in the castle statistics.
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