Podhradí Castle

In the early 13th century, the Knights of Neiperg settled east of Aš and built a new castle on the local mountain spur. The castle is first mentioned in writing in 1288, when the emperor briefly granted it as a fief to the Lords of Plauen. Soon after, it returned to the possession of the Neubergs, who held the castle until the male line died out in 1395. At that time, Neuberg came into the possession of the Zedwitz family through marriage. They held Neuberg for 550 years, until 1945. During this period, they built three more manor houses nearby: Schloss Oberteil, Neuschloss, and Schloss Unterteil. The original Romanesque castle was located in the northern part of the complex. Later, possibly in the 14th century, the 21.5-meter-high oval tower, which stands today, was erected on a raised rock. Already in the 16th century, the castle was considered deserted, and a fire at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century finally turned it into a ruin. The remaining walls were demolished and used as building material. A Renaissance castle was built in its northwestern forefield as a replacement for the castle. Its exact appearance is unknown. After its devastation by the Swedes, it underwent reconstruction in the 17th century, taking the form of a rectangular two-story building. This building remained desolate after a fire in 1902 and fell into ruin. The Neuschloss, a rectangular two-story building built by a branch of the Zedwitz family, was also demolished in the 1960s due to dilapidation. Only the collapsed cellar rooms remain. In the mid-18th century, the Zedwitz family built a new manor house, Schloss Unterteil, on the terrace below the older castle, which was then called Schloss Oberteil, on the foundations of an older building. It was a rectangular two-story building with a second timber-framed floor. Probably in the first half of the 19th century, two shorter wings were added to its eastern front. The building remained practically unchanged in the 1950s, but in the following years, its decline progressed quickly – it deteriorated and had to be demolished in 1965.

The castle ruin of Podhradí is situated at an elevation of approximately 565 meters above sea level in Podhradí u Aše, within the Karlovarský kraj region in northwestern Czech Republic.