Kojšice Castle in Petrovice u Sušice

Kojšice Castle is an abandoned manor house in the hamlet of Kojšice, part of the municipality of Petrovice u Sušice in the Šumava region, Klatovy District. The building stands on the site of a medieval fortified manor and passed through several owners and rebuilds before falling into the ruinous state it remains in today.

Who founded the manor at Kojšice?

The first recorded lord of Kojšice was Racek of Kojšice, documented in 1424 as a servant of the Prague Archbishop Konrád z Vechty and later as mint master in Kutná Hora. He is credited with establishing the original fortified residence, which was gradually rebuilt in Renaissance and then Baroque style under later owners. Despite the changes, it never grew into a large defensive castle — it remained essentially a fortified manor house.

How did ownership change over the centuries?

In the first half of the 17th century, the estate belonged to the Částolár family of Dlouhá Ves. In 1676, the last heiress of that line sold Kojšice, together with its farm and manor house, to Barbora Helena Hozlauerová of Hozlau. By the mid-18th century the property had passed to the Dohalský family of Dohalice, who held it until the early 19th century. The next owner, Václav Veith, added a south wing with a vaulted hall after 1829. The building's biggest transformation came under Emanuel Forster, who bought the estate in 1873 and had it rebuilt between 1877 and 1890 in a Neo-Romantic style, giving it the picturesque form with a tower-topped gallery that still defines its appearance.

What happened to the castle in the 20th century?

In the early 1900s Kojšice passed to the Heintschel-Heinegg family, descendants of an industrialist ennobled in 1883. The last family member to hold the estate, Georg Oskar Felix Emanuel von Heintschel-Heinegg, a member of the Nazi party, was convicted and executed in 1946 for war crimes after the war. The property was then confiscated by the state and handed to the Sokol sports organisation of Sušice. After 1989, Sokol Sušice regained the building through restitution but lacked the funds to restore it, and the structure kept deteriorating.

What does the castle look like today?

The building has a near-rectangular footprint of roughly 12.5 by 14.5 metres, a hipped roof, and a distinctive eastern façade with a gallery, a tower-like structure and crenellation added during the 19th-century rebuild. The ground floor still has barrel-vaulted ceilings, and the hall in the south wing has a segmented vault. The castle is now heavily devastated: vegetation and self-seeded trees cover much of the structure, the north façade is collapsing, and the entire building is at risk of ruin. The current owner is reportedly Jaroslav Průcha, but the site is closed to visitors and can realistically only be viewed from outside the fence.

Where is Kojšice and how do you get there?

Kojšice is a small hamlet within the municipality of Petrovice u Sušice, located in the Šumava foothills, in the Pošumaví region of Klatovy District. The surroundings are rural and lie off the main tourist routes, so the easiest way to reach the site is by car from Sušice or Petrovice.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded the manor at Kojšice? Racek of Kojšice, recorded in 1424 as a servant of the Prague Archbishop and later as mint master in Kutná Hora.

Who is responsible for the castle's current appearance? Emanuel Forster, who bought the estate in 1873 and had it rebuilt in Neo-Romantic style between 1877 and 1890.

Can visitors go inside the castle today? No, the building is closed to the public, badly deteriorated, and at risk of collapse.

Who owns the castle now? Available sources name Jaroslav Průcha as the current owner; before that it belonged to Sokol Sušice.

Where exactly is Kojšice located? It is part of the municipality of Petrovice u Sušice, in the Pošumaví region of Klatovy District, in the Šumava area of the Czech Republic.