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Berken von der Duba – history and legends
The Berka of Dubá (Berka z Dubé) were one of the most powerful noble families in northern Bohemia. They owned castles in Bohemia – such as Bezděz (Bösig), Kokořín, Tollenstein and the rock castle of Schauenstein – and in what is now Saxon Switzerland, which at that time belonged to Bohemia: from 1353 Hohnstein, plus Wildenstein at the Kuhstall and, for a time, Rathen and the Winterstein.
Robber knights and the loss to Saxony
In the 15th century the Berkas went raiding again and again, and the Wettins took their possessions from them piece by piece: in 1443 Hohnstein, by exchange and purchase, and in April 1451 the lordship of Wildenstein, for which Albrecht Berka received Bohemian lands and money. The town of Hohnstein sees this as the beginning of the permanent border between Saxony and Bohemia.
Legend
Duba means “oak” in Czech. The legend goes like this: around 1085 a master of the hunt of the Bohemian Duke Jaromír fell, together with his lord, into the hands of robbers, who tied them both naked to an oak tree in order to shoot them. The huntsman asked to be allowed to blow his horn three more times – the retinue heard it, came running and rescued them both. In gratitude he was given the byname Duba, and the related Berka family adopted it when they built their castle of Duba.
As of: 09/2026
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