Its remains stand on top of the Chojnik hill (627 m (2,057 ft)) within the Karkonosze National Park, overlooking the Jelenia Góra valley.

The castle of Chojnik was originally raised by the order of Duke Bolko I the Strict in 1292 at the site of a former hunting lodge built by his father Bolesław II the Bald.

After Bolko II had died without issue in 1368, his widow Agnes von Habsburg sold the castle to one of the courtiers, the knight Gotsche Schoff.

Ferdinand III added new bastions to the castle in 1648 and finally restituted it to Christoph Leopold von Schaffgotsch, Hans Ulrich's son, in 1650.

The comital family relocated down into the valley to the old palace of Warmbrunn (today Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój) and the destroyed castle became a tourist attraction already in the early 18th century.

As she had no intention to enter into marriage she promised to espouse the bold man who would complete a circuit along the castle's walls on a horseback, knowing that on the steep slopes horse and rider must fall into the chasm.