Strekov Castle

Strekov was built from 1316 on a basalt cliff dropping about a hundred metres straight to the Elbe, to control river traffic at a narrows, and it is one of the most dramatically sited castles in the country - the rock is a phonolite plug of the Ceske stredohori and the walls follow its edge exactly. It fell into ruin after the seventeenth century. In 1842 Richard Wagner spent time in nearby Teplice and walked up here; he wrote that the castle in a thunderstorm gave him the image for the Wartburg set in Tannhauser, which he was then working on, and the connection is marked on site. Goethe also came. The keep is climbable and the view runs up and down the Elbe canyon with the barge traffic below. There is an exhibition and a restaurant, and concerts are held in the courtyard in summer.

What you actually see

• A basalt cliff over the river - a hundred metres of drop with the walls on the edge.
• A stabilised ruin - the fourteenth-century plan following the rock exactly.
• Wagner's storm - the visit of 1842 that fed the Tannhauser set.
• A climbable keep - looking up and down the Elbe canyon.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is a ruin with an exhibition rather than furnished rooms. The approach is a steep climb. Seasonal opening. The river below is industrial and Usti is a working city rather than a scenic one.

Nearby

Porta Bohemica is upstream; Decin and Bohemian Switzerland are downstream.