Hvížďalka, A fortified manor house in Czechia.
Hvížďalka is a fortified house standing in the park in the middle of Kalenice, south of Horažďovice. Its core is a late Gothic tower, now a one-storey building with a hipped roof, reshaped by classicist alterations in the mid-19th century when it was extended westwards and given new facades. The site is enclosed by a double moat and rampart, the moats probably fed with water from a nearby brook.
Kalenice was held by the Kalenic family from 1374; the Sádlové z Kladrubec owned the fortress from 1442. In 1520 a joint army of Tábor, Vodňany, Budějovice and Písek besieged it because Václav Sádlo had turned to robbery, captured and demolished it; he was promised 500 kop grošů in compensation in 1530. The site decayed and was sold as a deserted fortress in 1601. The tower core was widened westward and given new facades in the mid-19th century.
The name Hvížďalka is used alongside Hvízdalka for the fortress in the park at the centre of Kalenice. The Kalenic family, who held the village in the 14th century, bore two horns in their coat of arms. A protected Norway maple with a trunk circumference over five metres grows on the fortified site.
The tower stands in the park in the middle of Kalenice, with the protected maple nearby. The owner has repaired the building and made it partly accessible to visitors; the interior is not fully open. The site is a cultural monument, so stay on paths and do not disturb the tree or the remains of the ditches and rampart.
The late-Gothic tower core survives as a single-storey building, reshaped by mid-19th-century Neoclassical alterations that widened it westward and gave it new facades. The whole fortified site is a protected cultural monument, and a Norway maple listed as a memorial tree grows on it, its trunk measuring over five metres around.
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