The article says Wenceslaus I ordered construction in the mid-13th century, from 1241 to 1247, and dates the stone castle's origin to 1329. It stands on gneiss rock, with the keep as the oldest part. The Nostitz family owned it from 1453 for about 250 years, with remodeling in 1525 and 1611, and strengthened walls helped repel a Swedish siege in the Thirty Years' War.
A fire destroyed it on August 17, 1793. Ernst Gutschow, a cigar manufacturer from Dresden, bought it in 1909 and ordered a remodeling by the Berlin architect Bodo Ebhardt, based on a 1703 painting. The Polish Army took it over in 1952, and it was ransacked several times after the war.
It has been open since September 1996 as a hotel and conference center. A 2012 poll named it one of the New Seven Wonders of Poland.
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