Helfštýn, also called Helfštejn and, in German, Helfenstein, is an extensive castle ruin above the Bečva river that dominates the valley of the Moravian Gate in the Olomouc Region. As early as the end of the 18th century, romanticizing historians put forward unfounded speculation about its origin in the distant past. [1]
Founding of the castle
The castle was most probably built in the last quarter of the 13th century. Its founder and first owner was the Silesian nobleman Friduš of Linava. According to an entry in the Moravian land tables from 1349, he seized part of the property of the lords of Drahotuše, perhaps in the period of lawlessness after the death of Přemysl Otakar II in 1278. On the highest part of the ridge above the Bečva, protected by steep slopes, he built a small castle with an oval ground plan. It covered an area of roughly 50 metres in length and 30 in width and was protected by a strong curtain wall with a massive round tower on the southern side. In the north stood a plain palace with two storeys above cellars. The whole complex was surrounded by a wide outer ward and, beyond it, a dug moat. Historians judged that the founder abused the castle's strategic position on the important route through the Moravian Gate for robbery. [1]
Gothic fortress and later owners
Building alterations began as early as the first half of the 14th century. The main reconstruction into a Gothic fortress took place at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, when the castle became the seat of Lacek of Kravaře, and the lords of Kravaře in particular improved its fortifications. Lacek died in 1416 and Helfštýn passed to his relative Petr of Kravaře, lord of Strážnice. [1]
In 1467 Vok of Sovinec sold the castle and the estate for 30,000 Hungarian gold coins to Albrecht, Zdeněk and Jan Kostka of Postupice and Jiřík of Landštejn. According to the history of the castle, the Hussite and Czech-Hungarian wars did not bring about the end of castle fortresses but forced a new view of their purpose. The Pernštejns later sold off their estates because of the decline of their fortune, and the Helfštýn estate was among the first to be put up for sale. In 1554 it was bought by Půta of Ludanice, a member of a noble family from Slovakia that had settled in Moravia in the second half of the 15th century. [1]
Renaissance and the 17th century
Hynek Bruntálský of Vrbno, who died in 1596, and his sons undertook not only the reconstruction of the castle but also the construction of a new chateau in Lipník. At Helfštýn they rebuilt the inner core into a Renaissance residence. During the Estates' uprising the castle was probably guarded by a military garrison, and nobles from the surrounding area deposited valuables there. Wartime events passed the castle by. In 1621 rebellious Wallachians led by Jan Adam of Víckov appeared before it, and the imperial garrison surrendered the castle to them without a fight. It was later owned by the Dietrichsteins. [1]
The ruin and its opening to visitors
The ruin was widely visited in the 19th century. The first more serious attempt to open the castle to the public took place shortly after the middle of that century, while more systematic stabilization work began only in 1911. [1]