KLENOV

The following text, including the pictures, is taken from the book HRADY JIHOVÝCHODNÍ MORAVY ( THE CASTLES OF SOUTHEASTERN MORAVIA) by PhDr. Jiří Kohoutek, CSc. published by ARCHA publishers in Zlín for the Museum of Southeastern Moravia in Zlín in 1995

The Freundsberg castle

The top of Klenov with its many legends (most legends are about hidden treasures and bandits’ hideouts) represents a marked view point above the deep valley of the right-bank tributary of Bečva, the stream Bystřice, on which the dam Bystřička was constructed. The peak of the Klenov hill is called “Zámčisko” and lies in the land register of the village Bystřička in the Vsetín district.

The rocky ridge of the region formed by massive rocky blocks is facing the south-north . On its highest point there is a prominent sand-stone knot called “Havránka” by the local people. On this rock of the size of 13x9 m that surmounts the surrounding terrain by 6 m there are some marks, artificial cuts for fixing ends of beams and also foundation channels for placing the bottom ring of a log house. There are similar marks on the surrounding but smaller rocks too. From these traces of human activity we can assume there used to be a wooden tower building here. Archaeological findings prove there was a layer after a fire containing remains of sooty logs. The access path led from the west, the most easily accessible side where we can also suppose some ramparts although its remains are not very noticeable in the terrain. The place was protected by steep rocks from other sides.

Settlement of the place was proven by archaeological works at the beginning of the 14th century and also that there was a violent destruction of the castle by fire. A huge collection of archaeological findings (ceramics and iron objects) was acquired.

There are no written records about any settlement on Klenov but there are two records concerning the region itself from the turn of the 14th century.

There is a document from 1297 the text of which says that Protiva from Doubravice presented a templar master Ekk with some houses and lands that he acquired from the king and that lie on both banks of the river Bečva (“Beyc”). The contents of another document from 1308 are more important and interesting. This document states that Vok from Kravaře confirms that he received the following houses and lands from the templar master and he is going to rent them for 31 years: “ oppidum Setteinz cum castro Vreuntspergk” (the town of Vsetín with the Freundsberg castle). The templar held his right of churches and also made sure his convent had profit from the lands in the valley of the stream Rokytnice all the way to the river Bečva and at the same time a profit from half of the woods on the rented land. Taking into account the fact that the “oppidum Setteinz” was actually today’s Vsetín then the “castrum Vreuntsperk” could be the settlement on the Klenov peak. This consideration is even more probable because of the corresponding archaeological findings gained during the research of Zámčiska on Klenov. Whether it is so we cannot surely say. But as long as remains of another medieval castle in the proximity of Vsetín are found, the fortress on Klenov is the best candidate to be called Freundsberg according to the records. We cannot anticipate any marked settlement in the surroundings of Vsetín Bečva because the Czech king Wenceslas III. was considering a foundation of a Cistercian monastery (that would be called “Thronus Regis”)  in the area at the beginning of the 14th century. The monastery was supposed to be built on the confluence of the stream Ratiboř and the river Bečva: “…in bonis ineta confluentiam quarum Ratiboc et Peczue dictarum sitis…”

The monastery was to be settled by monks from the monastery in Plasy in the western Bohemia but in the end the monastery was not founded because Wenceslas III. was murdered in Olomouc in the same year (1306). This rather remote mountain area became popular again in the middle of the 14th century when the lords of Kravaře acquired the Vsetín and Rožnov regions. An important trade route led already along the Vsetín Bečva, which confirms an important notice from 1396 when traders and sellers coming from Poland through Starý Jičín, Krásno, Val. Meziříčí and Vsetín to Hungary and back did not have to pay the road toll: “per civitatem Tyczin et per Crasno, per Mezerzic et per Wsetin versus Ungariam et converso”. All these indirect hints allege that until the 14th century there was not much of a settlement in the region around the Vsetín Bečva although we may suppose a certain importance of this region even before that.