History
The first information of a defensive and residential seat in the village of Cieszów (“Cziskenberg”) was recorded in 1242, but on a later forgery. The stone Cisy castle (German: Zeiskenburg, Zeisburg) was probably built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries on the initiative of Bolko I, prince of Świdnica-Jawor, or possibly in the first decades of the 14th century from the foundation of prince Bernard. The first indisputable record of the castle was in 1327, at the beginning of the reign of Bernard’s son, Bolko II the Small, who issued a document in Cisy (“Zcyskberg”). This deed was witnessed, among others, by Ruprecht Unwogel from the Bolz family, previously a judge of the Świdnica court, who was recorded in documents from the years 1341-1343 as Ruprecht von Czeisberg or Czeysikperg.
In 1355, Bolko II captured Cisy along with several other strongholds as part of an armed campaign against rebellious feudal lords from the mountainous regions of the duchy. There is no information about from who the prince took the castle, but already from 1357, there was record of Nicholas (Nickel) from the Bolz family, calling himself “de Cyskberg”, probably the son of Ruprcht Unwogl. He held offices at the court of Bolko II, but he made an even greater career at the side of Duchess Agnes, after the prince’s death, when he became an almost constant witness to documents of the Duchy of Świdnica and Jawor. He obtained the title of steward of the Świdnica court, and also periodically in the years 1369-1377 of burgrave of castles in Strzegom, Wleń and Świerzawa. Cisy increasingly often hosted the Świdnica court together with Duchess Agnes, especially from the 1380s. In 1387, goods were also brought to the castle, stolen during a dispute between the Świdnica townspeople and the Świdnica court, in which Nicholas von Zeiskberg was heavily involved. Presumably, Cisy was already private property at that time, due to the long possession of the fief users by prescription.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the castle was held by the sons and grandsons of Nicholas, who had died before 1406. After the death of their patron, Duchess Agnes, they encountered serious financial difficulties, amounting to 600 fines of Prague groschen. One of the Zettritzs, Henry, repaid his father’s debt by taking out a loan from his relative, Sander Bolz von Grunau, securing the loan with Cisy Castle and its surroundings. In 1408, he purchased part of the estate owned by his nephew and then sold it, along with the castle, to Sander. Sander Bolz von Grunau owned the castle until his death in 1425, while his son remained associated with Cisy until at least 1427. By 1429, the new owner was Ullrich Seydlitz. In the meantime, according to unconfirmed tradition, the castle was destroyed during the Hussite Wars.
In 1450, Cisy belonged to the brothers Christof and Hans Borsnitz. In the event of their death without issue, they bequeathed their entire estate (the castle, the village of Święc, and the town of Dobromierz) to Dyprand Reibnitz, the deputy starost of Świdnica. Georg and Hans Czettritz were recorded as the castle’s subsequent owners, according to tradition having held it since 1466. The castle was then reportedly captured, perhaps by forces of supporters of the Czech King George of Poděbrady, during battles with supporters of Matthias Corvinus. If the castle was indeed captured, Cisy was rebuilt in the late 15th century and even expanded with a second outer bailey. This may have been a result of the Czettritzs’ heavy involvement in the War of the Silesian Succession on the side of the Jagiellonian dynasty. A semicircular bastion defending the bridge may have been added to the castle bailey as early as in the 16th century.
During the Thirty Years’ War, according to dubious and unconfirmed accounts, the castle was burned down by the Swedes in 1634. In the early modern period, the Czettritz family continued to own the castle, which used it on a limited basis and did not make any major changes. The dilapidated building began to serve as a source of building materials at the end of the 18th century, acquired for the construction of a palace in the neighboring village of Struga. Finally, Cisy was abandoned around 1800, which led the castle into a complete ruin. The first renovation and reconstruction works were undertaken in 1937. The next renovation of the monument took place in the 1960s.
Architecture
The castle was built on a hill in the valley of the small Czyżynka River, on the southern side of its bed, and on the eastern side of the place where a smaller stream flowed into it from the south. At the end of the Middle Ages, the entire complex of approximately 250 meters in length, consisted of the western rear bailey and the eastern front bailey, separated by the core of the upper ward, which was certainly the oldest part of the castle. The natural slopes of the hill protected the Cisy from the north-east, north, west and south-west, while from the other directions a ditch and an earth rampart were created, the widest from the south eastern side, from where the access road to the castle led. The ditch to the west gently merged with a natural ravine leading to the stream valley, which, after being separated by an embankment and the water being dammed, formed a pond.
The upper ward was built of local sandstone, on a trapezoidal quadrangle plan measuring 22 x 28 meters. The defensive wall was supported by buttresses in three corners. In the fourth, south-eastern corner, a lower buttress or batter was placed, because this section of the wall was led at an angle, and it was also reinforced with a cylindrical tower with a diameter of 10 meters and the thickness of the walls 4 meters, partially protruding in front of the defensive perimeter. The entrance to the tower – bergfried was located at the height of the first floor. The gate was placed on the opposite side, in a small tower creating a projection on the axis of the western curtain. The residential house measuring 9.5 x 19 meters filled the north-western part of the courtyard. It had at least three storeys. In the ground floor there was a room measuring 3.5-4 x 8 meters, slightly sunk into the ground, topped with a barrel vault, to which a ramp from the courtyard led. The high ground floor was divided into two rooms, both covered with a wooden ceiling, similarly to the first floor of the building. The living quarters there could be heated with warm air from a hypocaust furnace placed below, and one of the rooms was heated by a tiled stove. The upper floor of the house was equipped with a latrine, suspended at the northern wall. There was also a small room in the corner of the castle by the cylindrical tower.
From around the second half of the 14th century, the inner ward was surrounded by an outer wall, repeating the outline of the main defensive wall. It formed a narrow zwinger on three sides, and a slightly wider courtyard on the west. In its corner was the entrance gate to the northwestern bailey, approximately 20 x 40 meters in kidney shape. This outer bailey terminated in a rounded and elongated wall on rock base, within which stood a cylindrical tower, approximately 9 meters in diameter and with walls 1.8 meters thick. Its lower sections were built of stone at least up to the crown of the perimeter wall, while the upper sections were constructed using half-timbered technique with bricks. The tower’s entrance was at the level of the courtyard, but secured with a bar. The outer bailey also housed a water cistern and an adjacent building, resting against the defensive wall to the south, likely housing a kitchen. Its ground floor was covered with a timber ceiling, and a drain was placed in the wall. Furthermore, to the south of the upper ward, within the former moat, a half-timbered building was erected, measuring 15 x 8 meters. The stone ground floor was covered with a ceiling and accessed through a 1.4-meter-wide pointed portal. In the late Middle Ages, this building was demolished, and in its place a wall was erected, enclosing the zwinger of the upper ward on the north. The new wall was equipped with three loopholes and a gate at its western end.
In the second half of the 15th century, the castle was expanded on the southeastern side by a second outer bailey, approximately 26 x 40 meters in size. It communicated with the upper ward through a gate in the southeastern corner of the bailey wall, at the foot of the main tower. Additionally, the outer bailey had a smaller gate, providing access to the riverside escarpment, where the path to Czyżynka likely led. Another postern was located on the opposite southwestern side, where it opened onto the moat. A road ran through the courtyard of the eastern bailey to the outer gate, flanked by a semicircular tower, 8 meters in diameter, located at the front of the outer bailey fortifications. During the subsequent expansion, the outer gate was preceded by a trapezoidal foregate, measuring 5 x 18-25 meters, and a bridge over the moat. The buildings of the east outer bailey were adjacent to the defensive wall.
Current state
Currently, the castle is a stone ruin, within which the mass of the upper ward has been preserved, along with the main tower and the remains of the residential building, as well as the relics of the eastern and western baileys. Fragments of the building, especially the gate leading to the bailey, are a reconstruction from the 1930s. Modern reconstructions are also visible on the southern wall of the residential building and in the vault of the gate of the upper ward. Due to the difficult access route, accessible only on foot along a country road, the monument is avoided by most tourists, despite being located a short distance from Książ Castle.
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