Rogowiec Castle

On the cone-shaped, rocky summit of Rogowiec, at 870 m above sea level, lie the remains of a fortress regarded as the highest-situated castle in Poland. Not much is left – fragments of walls and a three-metre stump of a tower – but the climb in the Suche Mountains is rewarded with views of the Owl, Wałbrzych and Stone Mountains, and the castle's history is full of robber knights and sieges.

History: a watchtower on the Bohemian border

Tradition holds that Duke Bolesław the Tall built the first wooden stronghold here in the 12th century. The stone castle was built around 1292 on the initiative of Bolko I, Duke of Świdnica-Jawor, as a link in a chain of fortifications along the border with Bohemia. The oldest known record is a document of the Cistercian abbey in Krzeszów dated 8 September 1292, naming Reinsko Schwenckenfeldt as castellan of "Hornberch". The castle guarded a medieval trade route at the foot of the hill and served as the seat of the local estate administration.

In the 14th century a residential tower and a semicircular bastion were added. From 1361 to 1374 the burgrave was Mikołaj Bolcze, and in 1404 King Wenceslas IV granted the fortress to Jan Kruszyna von Leuchtenberg. During the Hussite Wars the Hussites captured and devastated it, and it then became a nest of robber knights: Franz von Pogorella took it in 1420, and from 1429 it was held by the Schellendorf family, who raided merchant convoys. The end came in 1482, when troops of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus under Georg von Stein captured and destroyed it. Excavations have turned up cannonball fragments and a small falconet gun, suggesting artillery was used. The castle was never rebuilt; in the 16th century the Hochberg family of Książ acquired the ruins with the surrounding estates.

What to see

The oldest part, the upper castle, was roughly triangular, with sides of about 20 × 30 m. It was dominated by a cylindrical keep about 10 m across with walls up to 3.5 m thick; its lower courses still stand about 3 m high. You can also see the foundations of the residential house, sections of the curtain wall and traces of towers. Archaeologists and students from the University of Wrocław, led by Dr Artur Boguszewicz, have carried out excavations on the hill. From the summit you look out over the Owl Mountains to the east, the Wałbrzych Mountains to the north and the Stone Mountains to the west and south.

Tripto tip

Admission is free. The ruins sit on a narrow wooded ridge above the Rybna valley, about 1.5 km west of Grzmiąca. The easiest start is the PTTK "Andrzejówka" mountain hostel, which you can reach by car; from there the walk to the castle and back takes 2–3 hours. The yellow trail from Głuszyca to Andrzejówka passes through the ruins, and the red Main Sudetes Trail and a blue trail along the Rybnicki Grzbiet ridge run below. The route follows forest mountain paths, so wear hiking boots. The site was entered in the heritage register on 30 March 1960.