VIEW OF THE RUINED CASTLE IN RATNO DOLNE

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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rob­a­bly, al­ready in the first half of the 14th cen­tu­ry, there was a knight's cas­tle in Rat­no (first men­tion in 1347), which was sup­pos­ed­ly built by the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Sile­sian fam­i­ly de Mus­sin (Mosch). This small, pos­si­bly still wood­en strong­hold be­came in 1388 the prop­er­ty of Kłodz­ko bur­graves be­long­ing to the von Pan­nwitz, the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of an an­cient Sor­bian fam­i­ly. In 1430 the vil­lage of Ra­then be­longed to Frie­drich von Haag, the roy­al gov­er­nor of Brou­mov, and in 1485 the own­er of the cas­tle was Zbin­ko Bo­cho­vec von Bu­chau, a clerk at the court of the Zię­bi­ce Duke Jin­dřich I. Sta­rší z Po­dě­brad a Min­ster­ber­ka (d. 1498). A few years lat­er this ruler prob­a­bly in­clud­ed the cas­tle in­to his prop­er­ty, be­cause in 1494 he was al­ready men­tioned as its right­ful own­er.

SOUTHERN ELEVATION OF THE CASTLE, VIEW FROM THE PARK

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n 1501 the Kłodzko Coun­ty (with Rat­no) was tak­en o­ver by the Im­pe­ri­al Count Ul­rich von Hard­egg (d. 1535), who bought it from in­debt­ed sons of Jin­dřich I. Sta­rší, pay­ing 70 000 Rhen­ish guil­ders. Sev­er­al years lat­er this rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the old Aus­tri­an no­bil­i­ty mar­ried the duke's youngest daugh­ter, Zdeň­ka (d. 1522). At that time the cas­tle was prob­a­bly al­ready sold or leased, be­cause in 1514 Bal­tha­sar von Re­ichen­bach is men­tioned as the lord in Ra­then. Even be­fore this trans­ac­tion took place, the count had ex­pand­ed the me­dieval fort­ress and sur­round­ed it with earth for­ti­fi­ca­tions. Sub­se­quent in­vest­ments in the cas­tle were car­ried out by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Re­ichen­bach fam­i­ly, per­haps al­so by the men­tioned Balt­ha­sar. Be­fore 1563, the build­ing un­der­went a ma­jor Re­nais­sance re­con­struc­tion dur­ing which ram­parts were added and moats were dug. A plaque with the date 1563, prob­a­bly placed there to com­mem­o­rate the com­ple­tion of con­struc­tion works, has been pre­served from this pe­ri­od.

FRONT (NORTH) ELEVATION OF THE CASTLE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY AND IN 2019
CHANCELLERY BUILDING CAN BE SEEN IN THE BACKGROUND

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n 1613 Hein­rich von Re­ichen­bach sold part of his prop­er­ty with Rat­no to Cert von So­both­en­dorf. Fif­teen years lat­er, as a sanc­tion for Cert's par­tic­i­pa­tion in the an­ti-Hab­s­burg re­bel­lion, half of the vil­lage was con­fis­cat­ed from him and the oth­er half was bought by Pe­ter Lang­wiss alias Lan­ge­wie­sen. His son, Chris­tian Lang­wiss, is re­mem­bered main­ly for his vi­o­lent char­ac­ter and ruth­less pol­i­cy to­wards his sub­jects, which led to a re­volt of the peas­ants that end­ed with an at­tempt to burn the cas­tle. How­ev­er, the vil­lagers did not man­age to con­quer the res­i­dence, but the Swedes did, and in 1645 they cap­tured the cas­tle, plun­dered it, and fi­nal­ly burned it down. A year lat­er the es­tate was tak­en o­ver by the em­pire ad­min­is­tra­tion and leased to the court sec­re­tary Wis­mer von Wie­sen­berg. Prob­a­bly at that time some works on re­con­struc­tion of the man­sion were carried out here, how­ev­er, no doc­u­ments prov­ing this the­sis have sur­vived. In 1672 the lord of Rat­no was Mat­thias Max­i­m­il­ian Dom­nisch. In 1675 the cas­tle was bought by Da­niel Pa­scha­sius Os­ter­berg­er von Os­ter­berg (d. 1711), an im­pe­ri­al lawyer and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the so-called new no­bil­i­ty.

CASTLE ON A LITHOGRAPH BASED ON A DRAWING BY FRIEDRICH BERNHARD WERNER FROM 1737

BASILICA OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN WAMBIERZYCE

VIEW FROM THE MONUMENTAL STAIRS OF THE BASILICA TO CALVARY HILL

BAROQUE INTERIORS OF THE BASILICA IN WAMBIERZYCE

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aniel von Os­ter­berg al­so took care of the cas­tle, which he trans­formed in­to a mag­nif­i­cent Re­nais­sance and baroque res­i­dence, one of the most beau­ti­ful in the Kłodz­ko re­gion. When he died, the palace with the vil­lages of Al­ben­dorf, Ober- and Nie­der­ra­then was giv­en to his old­er son Jo­hann An­ton who mar­ried An­ne The­re­se von Ei­cholz. The last of the von Os­ter­berg fam­i­ly to re­side in Rat­no was Da­niel's grand­son, im­pe­ri­al colo­nel Ema­nu­el Franz. In 1776, he sold the es­tate to a trade coun­cil­lor from No­wa Ru­da and the own­er of a part of Po­la­ni­ca-Zdrój (Bad Al­thei­de), Le­opold Gen­del (d. 1787) for 77,000 guil­ders. We do not know what prompt­ed the colonel to leave the Kłodz­ko re­gion, but we can as­sume that this de­ci­sion was caused by the take­over of Sile­sia by the Prus­sian Ho­hen­zol­lerns, en­e­mies of the Hab­s­burgs, which the Os­ter­bergs had sup­port­ed for sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions. The new own­ers prob­a­bly did not make any in­vest­ments in the cas­tle, fo­cus­ing in­stead on the granges that pro­vid­ed a sol­id in­come from the pro­duc­tion of wool, flour, wood and vod­ka.

ENGRAVING BY FRANZ SCHROLLER FROM 1885, "SCHLIESEN. EINE SCHILDERUNG DES SCHLESIERLANDES"

VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE SOUTH ON A POSTCARD FROM THE TURN OF THE XIXTH AND XXTH CENTURY

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he next own­er of the palace was the mer­chant Franz Au­gust Gross­man, who sold it in 1854 to the Scot­tish mil­lion­aire Wol­de­mar von John­ston und Krö­ge­born (d. 1860). It was prob­a­bly him or his wife The­re­sa de do­mo Ame­lang (d. 1887), who re­built the cas­tle in the Re­nais­sance style, added new ter­races on the gar­den side and built an or­an­gery. The heir to this prop­er­ty was Max­il­im­i­lan von John­ston (d. 1918), roy­al cham­ber­lain, who in 1900 es­tab­lished a ma­jo­raty with an area of 560 ha. His wid­ow, Elis­a­beth de do­mo Hau­te­vil­le-Ja­cque­min in 1933 gave the cas­tle to her grand­daugh­ter (?), Baro­ness Is­abel­la von Blan­ckart de do­mo von Münch­hau­sen. Mrs. von Blan­ckart was the last pre-war own­er of Rat­no - she was de­port­ed from here in 1946.

VIEW FROM A RAILWAY VIADUCT TO THE SOUTHERN ELEVATION OF THE CASTLE, POSTCARD FROM AROUND 1905

THE CASTLE SEEN FROM THE WEST, 1909

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f­ter the world war II, the cas­tle was na­tion­alised and placed un­der the care of Ści­naw­ka Breed­ing En­ter­prise, then No­wa Ru­da Na­tion­al Coun­cil, and fi­nal­ly hand­ed o­ver to De­part­ment of Ed­u­ca­tion, which planned to or­gan­ise here an or­phan­age. De­spite a ma­jor ren­o­va­tion in 1972, the cas­tle stood emp­ty, and al­though at­tempts were made to open a ho­tel here, the idea was quick­ly aban­doned due to the stench caused by the near­by cat­tle farm. Dev­as­tat­ed, but still in a good tech­ni­cal con­di­tion, the build­ing was bought in 1996 by a pri­vate en­trepreneur, and bare­ly two years lat­er it burned down in cir­cum­stances that re­main un­ex­plained to this day. It is com­mon­ly be­lieved that it was in­ten­tion­al­ly set on fire in or­der to ob­tain com­pen­sa­tion. Since that time, the own­er has lost in­ter­est in the cas­tle, which, de­void of any care, is de­te­ri­o­rat­ing at an alarm­ing rate.

SOUTHERN ELEVATION WITH GARDEN TERRACES, CONDITION IN THE 1960S AND TODAY

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he me­dieval cas­tle was built of stone and brick, on a plan sim­i­lar to a rect­an­gle with sides of 14x22 m. Prob­a­bly the on­ly ma­son­ry part (apart from the walls) was a cor­ner tow­er and a res­i­den­tial house, pos­si­bly of half-tim­bered con­struc­tion, at­tached to the south­ern cur­tain of the walls. The en­trance gate was prob­a­bly lo­cat­ed on the north­ern side. In the 16th cen­tu­ry, the south and north wings were built, which in­cor­po­rat­ed the me­dieval tow­er. Lat­er, af­ter the east wall was de­mol­ished, the south and north hous­es were ex­tend­ed, and the small space be­tween them was filled by the east wing. The en­tire com­plex was en­closed by the west­ern build­ing, dat­ed back to the mid-16th cen­tu­ry, which formed a sys­tem of four wings sur­round­ing a small court­yard. These wings were topped with a Re­nais­sance at­tic.

PLAN OF THE CASTLE: 1. COURTYARD, 2. NORTHERN WING, 3. CORNER TOWER, 4. EASTERN WING,
5. SOUTHERN WING, 6. EASTERN ALCOVE, 7. WESTERN TOWER, 8. ENTRANCE PAVILION

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n the sec­ond half of the 17th cen­tu­ry, Pascha­sius von Os­ter­berg re­built the Goth­ic-Re­nais­sance cas­tle by ex­tend­ing its south­ern façade and adding a sin­gle-ax­is an­nex. He al­so re­ar­ranged some of the in­te­ri­ors, nar­rowed the court­yard, and added a tur­ret to the en­trance. A lit­tle to the west of the cas­tle he erect­ed a de­tached build­ing where he placed the ad­min­is­tra­tor's quar­ters, a chan­cellery and a bil­liard room. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive en­trance gate was built in the vicin­i­ty of the chan­cellery, and a not very deep moat was dug be­tween the res­i­dence and the farm yard.

PLAN OF THE CASTLE COMPLEX: 1. CASTLE, 2. CHANCELLERY, 3. ORANGERY, 4. GARDEN TERRACES

CHANCELLERY, VIEW FROM THE WEST

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hor­ough re­con­struc­tion of the old cas­tle took place af­ter 1854, when the es­tate be­came the prop­er­ty of the fam­i­ly von John­ston und Krö­ge­born. The res­i­den­tial wings of the build­ing were raised by one storey and the west­ern neo-goth­ic clock tow­er was erect­ed. An en­trance pavil­ion was added to the north­ern façade, and on the south­ern side, im­pres­sive ter­races and stairs lead­ing to gar­dens with an or­angery were built. Un­til the mid-19th cen­tu­ry the gar­dens were ad­ja­cent to a me­na­gerie, which was lat­er trans­formed in­to an En­glish-style park. Af­ter the changes the cas­tle had a vol­ume of 14,000 cu­bic me­tres. The top of the new tow­er and the crown of the build­ings were dec­o­rat­ed with a Neo-Re­nais­sance at­tic, and their el­e­va­tions were ac­cent­ed with cor­ner rus­ti­ca­tion and dec­o­ra­tive win­dow stone­work.

CASTLE PARK, PHOTOGRAPH FROM 1909

TODAY THE TERRACES ARE IN RUINS AND THE FORMER PARK HAS TURNED INTO ONE BIG WASTELAND

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

SIGHTSEEING

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he cas­tle's cur­rent form - with its tall tow­er and at­tic top - is large­ly the re­sult of re­con­struc­tion car­ried out in the sec­ond half of the 19th cen­tu­ry, al­though the core 16th-cen­tu­ry con­cept has re­mained un­changed and is still clear­ly vis­i­ble. The sand­stone por­tal dec­o­rat­ing the main en­trance from 1677 with the coats of arms of the von Os­ter­berg fam­i­ly has sur­vived. The coat of arms of the John­ston und Krö­ge­born fam­i­ly, held by two li­ons, has al­so been pre­served and is lo­cat­ed in the cen­tral part of the at­tic of the south el­e­va­tion. Of the re­main­ing ar­chi­tec­tural de­tails we can still see parts of the fa­cade dec­o­ra­tion and frag­ments of win­dow and door stone­work.

VIEW FROM THE NORTH TO THE FRONT ELEVATION OF THE CASTLE

THE CASTLE AND THE CHANCELLERY SEEN FROM THE WEST

RUINED GARDEN TERRACES

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or the first few decades af­ter the war, the cas­tle was kept in not too bad con­di­tion. It was al­most com­plete­ly ru­ined by the fire that broke out here in Feb­ru­ary 1998. To­day it stands emp­ty, mak­ing a de­press­ing im­pres­sion en­hanced by the bro­ken ceil­ings, board­ed up win­dows and eerie si­lence. The over­grown and de­cay­ing park with ru­ined or­angery and gar­den ter­races looks sim­i­lar. The 17th-cen­tu­ry chan­cellery build­ing stand­ing near the cas­tle is slight­ly bet­ter pre­served, al­though, judg­ing by the scale of de­struc­tion, this term does not seem very lucky. Its in­te­ri­ors, de­void of his­toric fea­tures, not long ago in­hab­it­ed, now haunt with scenery straight out of a hor­ror movie. There is ev­ery­where here bro­ken fur­ni­ture, bro­ken tiles and san­i­tary fa­cil­i­ties, old (but not an­tique) stoves and other garbage. When we look at this sad im­age, we get an ir­re­sistible im­pres­sion that the cas­tle has died and there is no hope for it any­more. How­ev­er, there is a chance for its re­vival. Af­ter many years of ef­forts, the mu­nic­i­pal au­thor­i­ties have be­gun le­gal steps to ex­pro­pri­ate the cur­rent own­er and to re­sell the build­ing or to pre­serve it as a per­ma­nent ru­in. As I write these words, the case is very fresh, so it is worth fol­low­ing the press re­ports about it.

TERRIBLY DEVASTATED INTERIORS OF THE FORMER CHANCELLERY

The cas­tle is a pri­vate prop­er­ty, but the own­er has no in­ter­est in the place. You can there­fore freely en­ter the "park" and the ru­ins. How­ev­er, the cas­tle walls are not pro­tect­ed in any way, and the rot­ten boards and stairs look as if they are about to crack and col­lapse. There­fore, if you want to "vis­it" the in­te­ri­or, you should be very care­ful. And do not al­low chil­dren to en­ter!

The tour of the cas­tle from the out­side should take about 15 min­utes. Pen­e­trat­ing the ru­ins from the in­side, in­clud­ing the cor­ri­dors and chan­cellery rooms will prob­a­bly take much longer.

You can come to Rat­no with your dog. The dog should be on a leash be­cause there is a farm next to the cas­tle, which is not sep­a­rat­ed from it.

Con­ve­nient con­di­tions for drone fly­ing. Very good per­spec­tive on the cas­tle from the west, south and east. There are no build­ings here, and the lo­ca­tion on a hill makes the build­ing on­ly par­tial­ly ob­scured by trees.

FROM THE CHANCELLERY TERRACE THERE IS A VIEW OF THE CASTLE PARK AND THE WESTERN PART OF THE VILLAGE
(NOW SOMEWHAT OBSCURED BY TREES)

GETTING THERE

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he vil­lage of Rat­no Dol­ne is sit­u­at­ed a dozen or so kilo­me­ters east of the Sto­ło­we Moun­tains, in the cen­ter of a tri­an­gle whose ver­tices are the towns of No­wa Ru­da, Kłodz­ko and Ku­do­wa Zdrój. Bus trans­port from Kłodz­ko, Po­la­ni­ca and No­wa Ru­da reach­es the vil­lage. The cas­tle is lo­cat­ed in the east­ern part of the vil­lage, near the in­ter­sec­tion of the roads to Rad­ków, Po­la­ni­ca-Zdrój and No­wa Ru­da.

You can park your car on the hill near the cas­tle. At the cross­roads, take the road in the di­rec­tion of Ści­naw­ka/No­wa Ru­da, and af­ter pass­ing the park (on the left) turn left in­to the road lead­ing up­hill. There, by the Ba­roque chapel, turn left once again and drive a few dozen me­ters more.

Ac­cess by bi­cy­cle ac­cord­ing to di­rec­tions as above.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
2. A. Kwaśniewski: Zamek jako kreacja przestrzeni mitycznej..., DiG 2002
3. J. Lamparska: Tajemnice, zamki, podziemia, Asia Press 1999
4. J. Lamparska: Sudety Środkowe po obu stronach granicy, Asia Press 2003
5. R. Łuczyński: Zamki, dwory i pałace w Sudetach, Stowarzyszenie WA 2008
6. M. Perzyński: Zamki, twierdze i pałace D. Śląska i Opolszczyzny, WDW 2006
7. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019

A VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE SOUTHWEST, A LIVESTOCK FARM IN THE BACKGROUND

Castles nearby:
Ścinawka Średnia - Renaissance manor house from the XVI century, 6 km
Ścinawka Dolna - Renaissance manor house from the XVI century, 8 km
Ścinawka Górna - Renaissance manor house from the XVI century, 10 km
Nowa Ruda - fortified manor house from the 14th century, rebuilt, 6 km
Szalejów Górny - St. George fortified church from the 14th century, 15 km
Stary Wielisław - St. Catherine of Alexandria fortified church from the 14th century, 17 km
Kłodzko - Kłodzko Fortress from the 17th-18th centuries, 18 km

text: 2019, 2020
photographs: 2021
© Jacek Bednarek