Kokorin Castle

Kokorin was built in the first half of the fourteenth century by Hynek Berka of Duba on a sandstone spur above the valley - a small castle of the classic Bohemian type, a round tower and a palace behind a wall, using the rock itself for defence on three sides. It was damaged in the Hussite wars, listed as a cursed castle in the seventeenth century and left to fall down. In 1894 Vaclav Spacek bought the ruin and between 1911 and 1918 had it rebuilt in a deliberately romantic manner, restoring the tower and roofing the palace, and the result is a building that looks the way the nineteenth century thought a medieval castle should look. It is still privately held by the family's descendants. The tower is climbable and gives a view over the sandstone valleys of Kokorinsko, which are the reason to be in this part of the country at all.

What you actually see

• A round tower on a sandstone spur - the fourteenth-century core.
• A romantic rebuild of 1911-1918 - roofed and restored to a nineteenth-century idea.
• A climbable tower - looking over the Kokorinsko valleys.
• Private ownership - returned to and still held by the rebuilder's family.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Much of what stands is early twentieth-century work, not medieval fabric. Seasonal opening and closed in winter. The approach road is narrow and parking is limited. The village has minimal services.

Nearby

Houska castle is north; Melnik and the Elbe confluence are south.