LOCATIONS â 257/262 â Suchdol
The Gothic fortress probably originated in the 13th century, commissioned by one of the Kuttenberg patricians. It had a square layout with the corners facing the cardinal points and was surrounded by walls, a moat and a rampart. From the northeast, the entrance to the fortress was secured by a bridge and a double gate protected by the main tower.
Inside the fortress, a single-story palace ran adjacent to the wall, with a smaller tower and a single-story outbuilding.
Today, a castle stands on this site, which retains only parts of the perimeter masonry, part of the gate portal and the stone seats on the ground floor of the former tower, as a reminder of the fortress.
â The coat of arms of Suchdol (deriving from "suchĂ˝ dĹŻl", a dry mine), which the town was granted in 1562 together with its town rights, must have changed some time before the 18th century. While it first depicted a fir tree cut down by a sharpened axe, it later missed the axe entirely, only keeping the broken tree, now with an outstretched branch out of which the top of a new, greening fir tree grows. The little that is known of Suchdol's history is also much shaped by violent conflicts and revivals.
The first time the fortress itself appears in records, was in the context of its siege, during Sigismund's campaign against KutnĂĄ Hora. Little of this event is known other than that mintmaster Petr of PĂĹĄek owned the fortress at that time, and that Markvart of Ălice died here. The siege must have been rather short. The Leipzig Chronicle speaks of the Prague army riding out from their camp near KolĂn on the eve of Christmas, and Markvart being shot by an arrow fired from the castle of Suchdol on the Day of St. John the Evangelist, three days later. What happened afterwards is unknown, but since Suchdol remained undamaged and the PĂĹĄeks in control, it is likely that they surrendered together with KutnĂĄ Hora in January 1403.
From 1545 onwards, Suchdol was owned by the family Popel of Vesec, of whom records say that âwhen it comes to exuberance, unbridledness and wilfulness, few families could match themâ. The first owner, VĂĄclav, notorious for drinking and threatening his son in law with death, was killed in a tavern brawl in KolĂn in 1547. His younger brother had already been decapitated two years prior for murder. VĂĄclav's son Jan was similarly known for drinking, getting himself involved in brawls, stealing carriages full of crops from the surrounding lands or for ambushing his rivals and shooting at them. The latter earned him a prison sentence at the Prague Castle, and with the debts gained through lawsuits and compensations he was forced to sell Suchdol in 1571.
After the new owner JiĹĂ VodÄradskĂ˝ of HruĹĄov was executed in 1580 for illegal financial transactions, the fortress and town of Suchdol were heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War. The fortress fell into full disrepair within the 19th century when it was first used as a sugar factory, then as a granary and warehouse. Since 1925, the castle of Suchdol is owned by the municipality itself, and could be renovated and equipped with a school, apartments, a library and rooms for the municipal office.