Hasištejn Castle, Castle ruin in Místo, Ústí nad Labem Region, Czech Republic

Hasištejn Castle is a ruined Gothic castle on a hill above the village of Místo in the Ústí nad Labem Region, not near Kadaň. Its remains include a tall square bergfried with a pyramidal roof, a medieval palace with a staircase tower and chapel, and a later late-Gothic palace beneath a cylindrical tower adapted as a lookout. A broad ruined hall with a large pointed arch stands to the right, and a stone staircase climbs to an arched entrance.

The castle was probably built in the 1320s by Frederick IV of Schönburg, who held the Hasištejn estate as a fief from around 1324; dendrochronology dates its timber to 1315–1331. In 1418 royal troops under Nicholas Chudy of Lobkowicz captured it after a two-month siege, and the Lobkowicz family then held it. Bohuslav Hasištejnský of Lobkowicz expanded it around 1500, but from the early 17th century it served only economic purposes and was repaired for visitors in 1891.

The name Hasištejn is a Czech rendering of the German Hassenstein, the name used by the Schönburg lords who held the castle from 1348. Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, who died at the castle in 1510, assembled a library said to have been used by Luther and Melanchthon. A sandstone channel set in the paving of the outer courtyard once held ceramic water pipes.

The site is generally open from spring through autumn, and visiting outside those months may not be possible. The ground is uneven and sloped in places, so sturdy footwear is a good idea before you set out.

Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic made Hasištejn a humanist centre around 1500, and his library was later moved to Chomutov, where part of it burned in 1598; most volumes went to the Roudnice castle. Goethe visited the ruin on 9 September 1810 and drew it, and a memorial plaque was put up in September 1910.