Vež Hláska - Zámek Podebrady / The Watchtower - Chateau Podebrady (Central Bohemia) - Retired Prisons on Waymarking.com

The Watchtower (Hláska), the most important part of original Gothic castle Podebrady, rebuild into Rnaissance and later Baroque chateau served as a prison since the Middle Ages.

The key element of the Podebrady skyline is the castle tower Hláska. The massive Gothic tower is part of the northern castle wing. Originally the tower stood alone among the other castle buildings. Foundations of the tower from the mid-13th century are hidden far below the current level of the courtyard. The ground floor of the tower served as a dungeon-like prison to which the prisoners were transported by rope. King George of Podebrady put into the tower several of his political opponents, including the papal legate Fantin de Vale, Menhart of Hradec and priest Vaclav Koranda, who died in prison. Ten leaders of the Kutná Hora miners uprising were imprisoned in the tower in 1496. The last prisoners left the tower in 1723 and the tower was further used as an armory and warehouse. The Hláska was originally terminated by a tent roof with a wooden gallery. The current Baroque appearance is from the Theresian reconstruction of the Chateau in the first half of the 18th century. The diameter of the tower is 10.1 m, the thickness of the walls on the ground floor 3.38 m, so the interior space has a diameter of only 2.5 m.