Divci Kamen

Divci Kamen - Maiden's Stone - was built from 1349 by the Rosenbergs on a rock spur where the Kremzsky brook meets the Vltava, with the water on three sides and a neck cut by a ditch on the fourth. It was one of the larger castles of its period in southern Bohemia, with a palace, a chapel, towers and a substantial outer ward. It was also short-lived: the family stopped maintaining it in the fifteenth century, it was declared uninhabitable in 1506, and it has been a ruin for five hundred years, which is why the surviving walls are unrestored medieval fabric rather than later rebuilding. The site is reached only on foot through the Blansky les forest, about half an hour from Trisov, and there is nothing on it but walls, grass and the rivers below. Excavation in the twentieth century recovered a substantial quantity of medieval material.

What you actually see

• A rock spur between two rivers - water on three sides and a cut ditch on the fourth.
• Unrestored medieval fabric - walls left standing since abandonment in 1506.
• A large plan - palace, chapel, towers and an outer ward on the spur.
• A forest approach - about half an hour on foot from Trisov.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

There is no vehicle access, no facilities and no interpretation beyond a board or two. Walls are unstabilised in places and fenced. The path is muddy after rain. It is a ruin and nothing more.

Nearby

Zlata Koruna is upstream; Holubov and Klet are west.