Najštejn Castle, castle ruin in Květnov, Czech Republic

Najštejn Castle is a ruined castle at about 560 m above sea level on a promontory above the Jirkov reservoir between Březenec and Květnov. Its core was cut off by a rampart and a ditch 5–7 m deep; in the front part stood a rectangular palace 16 m long and 10 m wide, of which low foundations of the perimeter walls survive. The rear part is a rock spur with a natural fissure closed by a wall with a loophole.

The castle was probably built in the first half of the 14th century by Jetřich of Alamsdorf, documented in 1323, as a new family seat. It is first mentioned in 1363, when Jan and Hugo of Alamsdorf endowed a new altar in St. Linhart's Church in Březenec. In 1381 Fricolt of Alamsdorf sold Březenec to the Teutonic Order in Chomutov, and soon after the castle passed to the Order and was abandoned, being listed as deserted from 1411 and razed during the Hussite Wars.

The name Neustein (Najštejn) is first documented in 1363, when the estate was divided among the descendants of Dietrich von Almsdorf, Johann and Hugo, who endowed a new altar in the church of St. Leonard in Březenec. A local legend tells of a robber knight said to have been abducted as a child from Bořek Castle.

The easiest route starts in Květnov, following the narrow road toward Orasín; after about 200 m a small asphalt lane branches east toward the Telš gamekeeper's lodge, and after roughly one kilometre a forest path turns off to the ruins. The site lies in a first-order drinking-water protection zone, so the remains are now reachable only via Telš and Orasín.

About seventy metres before the castle core, a ditch up to twenty metres wide was cut into the rock, leaving a narrow unexcavated strip for a path; heaps of quarried stone beside it were probably meant to enlarge the castle, a plan abandoned after the Order of German Knights took over.