The Tolštejn Castle is located in the microregion of Tolštejn, approximately 4 km south of Varnsdorf

Varnsdorf

Varnsdorf is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic, with a population of around 16,000. The town is close to the border with Germany, with border crossings to the Saxon towns of Seifhennersdorf and Großschönau, and is the second largest in the Děčín District.The village of...

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History

The castle was built in 1278 as part of the Zittau

Zittau

Zittau is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, close to the border tripoint of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. , there are 28,638 people in the city. It is part of the Görlitz district....

 region's defense structure. George of Poděbrady

George of Podebrady

George of Kunštát and Poděbrady , also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad , was King of Bohemia...

 ordered the castle to be seized shortly after the Hussite Wars

Hussite Wars

The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...

 and after many conflicts, the Tolštejn dominion was taken by 1471 by two Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 princes, Ernest and Albrecht. During the Thirty Years War, the army of the Austrian Emperor occupied the castle. In 1607, the Swedish General Wrangel

Carl Gustaf Wrangel

Carl Gustaf Wrangel was a high-ranking Swedish noble, statesman and military commander in the Thirty Years', Torstenson, Bremen, Second Northern and Scanian Wars....

 laid siege and burned down the castle.

Today the ruins of the castle are one of the most visited places in the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. The creation of the microregion of Tolštejn was designed to help tourism in the area.