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Helfenburk (Hrádek) u Úštěka

hradek

The ruin of the castle Helfenburk is situated not far from Úštěk, north-east from Litoměřice. It was built in the middle of the 14th century. Originally it served as a nobility castle, later it was a castle of the Prague archbishop. Today we can only see the ruin with a few rests of the castle so we do not know the original look of the building. Even artists were inspired by the ruin – for example the painters Ludvík Buquoy an Antonín Pucherna, poet Karel Hynek Mácha and many others. These days the ruin is a property of the town Úštěk and it is kept by volunteers. The whole areal including the tower is opened on weekends. Even its location is very nice – the ruin is situated in a picturesque vally surrounded by forests.