Chojnik Castle

Chojnik Castle is a citadel positioned above the city of Sobieszow, these days a part of Jelenia Gora in southwestern Poland. Its remains stand on top of the Chojnik hill 627m inside the Karkonosze National Park, overlooking the Jelenia Gora valley. The building of the citadel dates again to the instances of the Silesian Piasts and for most of its time changed into in the possession of the Schaffgotsch noble own family. Today the semi ruined stronghold is a primary visitor appeal and houses a resort and an eating place. The citadel of Chojnik became at first raised with the aid of the order of Duke Bolko I the Strict in 1292 on the website of a former searching hotel constructed by using his father Boleslaw II the Bald.

The castle was intended to protect the borders of Bolko Duchy of Jawor in opposition to the menacing Wenceslaus II of Bohemia. Bolko grandson Bolko II the Small, the closing independent Piast duke, had the castle reconstructed starting from 1355. After Bolko II had died without difficulty in 1368, his widow Agnes von Habsburg sold the castle to one of the courtiers, the knight Gotsche Schoff. Gotsche II Schoff modernized and expanded the citadel in 1393. In the equal year he donated the Gothic chapel, which was finished in 1403.