Houska

Přemysl Otakar II's early gothic castle on a rock above the Kokořínsko woods — famous for the "gate to hell" legend, 13th-century chapel frescoes and the mystery of why it was built at all.

Houska is one of the best-preserved early gothic castles of Přemysl Otakar II, built in the 13th century as a royal administrative centre — a role that nearby Bezděz promptly took over, leaving Houska stranded in the woods with no town, no trade route and no obvious purpose. That vacuum bred the legend the castle is now famous for: that it was built not to keep enemies out but to seal a fissure in the rock said to lead to hell, from which creatures half-man, half-beast crawled at night — a tale first written down by the chronicler Václav Hájek in the 16th century. The sober riches are real enough: gothic frescoes from the 13th century in the castle chapel and the painted Green Chamber from the 16th. The castle is privately owned and open in season.