To the east and west, the headland is protected by abrupt cliffs, with the Otava on the north side. The oldest part of the castle is the great square tower built of rusticated ashlar masonry typical of Hohenstaufen architecture. It faces the south end of the headland and is protected by a moat.

On the ground floor, it had a single rib-vaulted bay, the ribs descending to pyramidal consoles. The square wall ribs and the vault webs are of brick with surviving impressions of the original wooden centering. The space was lit by two arrow slits and was accessible through a passageway with two doorways with pointed arches.

The living room on the first floor had groin vaults supported by corbels on a string course. There were further rooms to the east and west of the tower. The south range retains its early form, with two rib-vaulted rooms on the ground floor and an asymmetrical wooden-roofed entrance hall leading from the courtyard, giving access to the ground floor of the tower and to two rooms of the palace.

The resemblance of the tower vault moldings to those in the Cistercian abbeys at Zwettl and Lilienfeld indicate that the first masons’ workshop in Zvíkov came from the Danube area of what is now Austria.

About 1250, when Hirzo, a member of the court, became castle burgrave, the Zvikov Castle was radically altered and renamed Klingenberg. Construction was taken over by a new workshop from the Danube region, which built four ranges of living quarters around an internal courtyard with an arcaded gallery, a new type of ground plan first used for the royal castle at Plzeň. Fundamental alterations were made both to the plan and to the rooms of the castle.

The main change was to the function of the great hall, which ceased to be the main living area since each range now had three rooms: a central, two-bay, vaulted hall linked to a paneled room on one side and a room with a fireplace on the other. This arrangement was supplemented by further rooms as and when required. The best preserved of the new living units is in the west range, the ground floor of which includes a blind-arcaded entrance and passageway.

The first floor has a central two-bay vaulted hall with an adjacent room, and three windows above the passageway grouped in pyramid form. The original fireplace survives on the wall adjoining the great tower. The rooms in the north range were similar, but the east range had a great hall with six bays of vaults resting on two central octagonal piers. As at Plzeň, the individual ranges of the castle were linked by arcaded galleries, which remained untouched until the restorations of 1840–1844 and 1881–1885.

The last and artistically richest building in the residential part of the castle is the chapel of St Wenceslas, which was built on the first floor of the south range, with a door in the west wall. The chapel is a single-cell building with two bays of sexpartite vaults.

The walls are divided horizontally by the deep window-ledge into a lower level of blind arcading running around the entire building, the capitals decorated with naturalistic leaves or berries, and an upper level that harmonizes with the High Gothic clustered vaulting shafts, which are corbelled into the window-sills.

The west end of the chapel is occupied by the royal tribune, with three bays of vaulting resting on molded capitals and octagonal piers. The two-light windows have a trilobed pattern of tracery. Attached to the north side of the chapel is the sacristy, dedicated to the Virgin. It has two bays of rib vaulting, the transverse arch resting on corbels carved with human heads.

The chapel retains its original altar; the walls were frescoed, and the windows were filled with stained glass (destr.). The floors of both chapel and sacristy were covered in glazed tiles with heraldic figures and inscriptions in German in praise of Ottokar II. It is presumably he who is depicted as a donor on the tympanum of the west portal, at the center of which is a seated Virginflanked by angels.

The chapel, which must have been finished by 1263 when Hirzo was recalled to found the town of České Budějovice, is evidently the work of a local team that had absorbed the French High Gothic styles introduced through Cistercian architecture.

About 1270 a new fortified curtain wall was built, and the southern neck of the headland was reinforced by a gate-tower with a cylindrical tower à bec, its sharp edge aimed in the direction of presumed attack, as at Pernštejn Castle.

Zvikov Castle Location

Address: Zvíkovské Podhradí, 397 01 Písek Czech Republic. Use this map to get directions:

Zvikov Castle Map

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The Wallenstein Palace Complex, which now houses the Ministry of Culture was built in 1623 in the Little Quarter for Count Albrecht von Wallenstein. It is the first monumental early Baroque building in Prague.

The palace, built on the site of 23 houses and three gardens, is asymmetrically located around five courtyards, with a spacious garden, including a lake, aviary, and riding school.

Wallenstein Palace History

Building began in 1623 after a design by Andrea Spezza that still included some Mannerist elements. Most of the Wallenstein Palace was completed by 1633. The garden sala terrena was the first big project of this type, north of the Alps.

The garden, a paramount work of Central European Mannerism, was set up at the same time, and Adriaen de Vries designed the Neptune Fountain and four smaller fountains for the garden together with bronze mythological heroes and groups of muscular wrestlers, water gods, nymphs and sirens set in the parterres. In 1630 Wallenstein acquired Benedikt Wurzelbauer’s statue of Venus from the fountain of the Lobkovic garden and placed it on the Neptune Fountain.

After Wallenstein’s murder in 1634, the palace was seized by Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor; it was acquired by Maximilian von Wallenstein, a nephew of the original owner, in 1639.

The Swedes caused considerable damage in 1648 when they confiscated many items, including the garden sculptures, which were taken to the Drottningholm Palace, near Stockholm (later, replicas placed in the Wallenstein garden): Wurzelbauer’s Venus alone was returned by the Swedes in 1889. In 1938 a giardinetto was designed in front of the sala terrena, and the entire garden assumed its present form, designed by M. Vincík, in 1955. At the same time, the riding school was adapted for the purposes of the National Gallery by Vincík and J. Pecánková.

The main, front wing, which extends 19 bays, encloses in its center the original Trcka house. The two-story Knights’ Hall forms the centerpiece. Its shallow vault is decorated in stucco with military motifs and figures of genii, surrounding a ceiling fresco of Albrecht von Wallenstein as Mars by Baccio del Bianco.

The doorways, made before 1720 to František Maximilián Kaňka’s designs, were brought from the Černín Palace in the restoration of 1853. In 1630 Bianco decorated the two-story chapel, which also contains a carved wooden altarpiece by Ernst Johann Heidelberger, with frescoes of scenes from the Life of St Wenceslas and, over the organ-loft, the Life of the Virgin.

The audience hall in the north wing has paintings and stucco dating from the late 17th century, the ceiling depicting the Triumph of Apollo, with personifications of the Seasons. The Astronomy Corridor was decorated before 1630 with paintings of mythological personifications of seven planets, the continents, and Zodiac symbols, set in rich stucco frames.

The three-bay sala terrena, probably by Giovanni Pieroni da Galiano or Andrea Spezza, is fronted by doubled Tuscan columns. Its deep barrel vault was decorated with stucco by Dominico Canevale de Moneto and Santino Gallo from 1629–30 and frescoed by Baccio del Bianco with subjects from Virgil’s Aeneid. The garden court of the riding school was modified in 1978.

Wallenstein Palace Map

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The Liechtenstein family built the Waltice Castle about 350 years ago. Part of it now serves as a museum while some wings have been transformed into a hotel, restaurant, and nightclub complex.

For those interested in architecture, the village itself has an impressive town hall and an early baroque church overlooking the main square.

Valtice is also one of the best-known wine centers in the southern Moravia wine-growing region. The Valtice wine company, established in 1640, exports its product around the world, including to Canada.

At the outskirts of the village, below an artificially raised mound, is one of the largest and oldest wine cellars in the Czech Republic. It’s a stone structure, built at the end of the 12th century in the shape of a cross, 450 feet long and 300 feet wide.

Valtice Castle Location

Valtice Castle lies very close to Lednice Castle, and they are part of Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape. The complex is worth visiting on a day trip.

Visits to the Valtice Castles, wine tasting at the Valtice winery, and shopping at the small stands for souvenirs and crystal provide pleasant breaks from the traditional busy tourist centers of central Europe.

Valtice Castle Map

Get directions to the Valtice Castle using the map provided below:

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Švihov Castle History

At the beginning of the 14th century, a new moated fort was built at river level on the main road, at the same time as the so-called upper town of Švihov with its regular oblong square and parish church of St Wenceslas.

At its southern edge, the so-called lower town developed with the hospital church of St John the Evangelist.

After 1480 Půta Švihov of Rýžemberk (reg 1479–1504) built a new moated castle on the site of the fort, which had been damaged during the Hussite wars.

It was founded on an artificial island protected to the east by the Úhlava and to the north and west by a mill race, which also separated it from the upper and lower towns.

The concentric arrangement of the castle combines two architectural concepts (Menclová): the older Bohemian type of living quarters and church, with four towers.

The core of the castle consists of north and south blocks, which, with the connecting walls, form a regular inner court. Next to the east curtain wall is the chapel, a separate, single-cell building.

This residential core was surrounded by a moated fortification wall, strengthened at the corners by circular bastions. A second chapel projects across the east curtain, its polygonal apse extending into the moat level with the bastions.

To the west was a tall, square entrance tower. Above the entrance, a stone tablet, which once bore the title and arms of the owner, has been set in a sculptured frame. A drawbridge connected the living quarters to the tower.

The inner core was encircled by an outer ring of moated fortifications. Access was at the northern side through a large square tower with a drawbridge, and the western section was strengthened by two square and two circular bastions.

The eastern section was demolished in the mid-17th century, but research carried out in 1951 established that it had broad round bastions open to the court and equipped with embrasures with a revolving drum, a device used at Prague Castle by Benedikt Ried.

The south range had three vaulted rooms on the ground floor, and on the first floor a twin-aisled hall with groin vaults supported on octagonal columns. During the time of Půta Švihov, the north range was given groin vaults by Benedikt Ried.

At the death of Půta Švihov in July 1504 the estate passed to his two sons, Václav (d 1510) and Jindřich, who the following year divided the Svihov castle between them, the north palace going to Václav and the south to Jindřich.

Apart from minor repairs, the interior of the Švihov castle has been preserved in its original form. The north range had a ground floor and above it a hall rising through two stories; these had wooden ceilings. From the first floor, a wooden gallery led to the star-vaulted chapel.

The chapel and entrance tower were held in common. Joint maintenance of the castle involved changes to the original design: a narrow staircase wing joining the two palaces was added to the western side of the court. The large twin-aisled hall on the first floor of the north block was divided into three parts.

The entrance tower was also altered and in the western part of the moat was built a new residential wing, of which only the foundations and traces of paintings in the moat wall have survived. The so-called Red Bastion was next to it to the northwest, with frescoes depicting scenes from contemporary tournaments on its walls.

The artist also painted the fresco of St George and the Dragon on the north wall of St Mary’s chapel: Jindřich Švihov and his wife, Princess Voršila Münsterbská, are depicted as St George and the princess. Their arms have been preserved on the parapet of the tribune.

Behind the figure of St George, Švihov Castle is depicted at its apogee in the second decade of the 16th century. The fresco is one of the earliest to give a realistic rendering of the Bohemian landscape.

Of the original decoration of the chapel, there survive sculptured busts of four Church Fathers, dated c.1500, and richly molded embrasures.

In 1548 the Švihov castle passed into the hands of Herald Kavka of Řičany, who made some alterations; in the 18th-century granaries were built in the palatial buildings, and by 1860 the castle had been abandoned. Systematic restoration has continued since 1952.

Švihov Location

Švihov Castle is located in Švihov, 120 km west of Prague and 33 km south of Plzen. The castle is closed for visits on Mondays. On other days the castle opens its gates at 10 AM.

Švihov Map

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The Prague Castle’s (Hradčany) construction began around the year 885. It was originally designed as a Slavic fortress with wood and earthen walls and mostly wooden buildings, it became the center of the Bohemian state and ducal/royal seat.

The earliest stone structures were the church of the Virgin Mary (before 885); a basilican church of St George (around 920, later rebuilt after 1142) near the Benedictine convent; and a circular church of St Vitus (before 930), followed by in 1060–96 by a double-choir Romanesque basilica.

In 1135–85, the Prague Castle was rebuilt in stone in Romanesque style (three-gated fortification, princely palace with chapel of All Saints, church of St Bartholomew, and episcopal palace with chapel of St Maurice).

Gothic reconstruction began after 1333 under Charles IV. After Prague became an archbishopric, he began building the Gothic cathedral of St Vitus. Its first architect was Matthias of Arrasin 1344–1352, followed in 1356–1397 by Peter Parler. In 1419, the Hussite Wars interrupted the construction.

Late Gothic rebuilding of the castle began after 1483 under King Władysław Jagiełło. It included renovation of the royal palace (for example, the Vladislav Hall, 1490–1502, by architect Benedikt Ried) and an attempt to continue the cathedral.

In the royal garden, Queen Anna’s summer palace was built by Giovanni Spatio, Paolo della Stella, and Bonifacius Wohlmut in the Renaissance style, as was the organ loft in St Vitus’ and the chapel of St Adalbert.

The present fabric of Prague Castle comes from 18th and 19th-century restorations.

Prague Castle Location

To get to Prague Castle follow this address: Prague Castle, 119 08 Prague 1 Czech Republic 168 m NW. Get help with directions using the map provided below.

Prague Castle Map

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It was the seat of the Pernštejn family, who at the beginning of the 13th century acquired extensive lands in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, where they built numerous castles and founded a family monastery at Doubravník.

Pernštejn Castle History

The Pernštejn Castle was first mentioned in 1285; it was positioned on a rocky hill at the end of a long, wooded headland. Protected by steep slopes on three sides, it was accessible only from the north. The tower faced the anticipated direction of attack and stood behind a protective gabled wall, beneath which was a gate with a drawbridge leading across a moat.

The remaining curtain wall was thinner and characterized by visible outer projections. Leading from the cylindrical tower, now six-storey, there was probably a wooden gallery to the first floor of the adjoining domestic wing on the protected south-west side. The ground floor seems to have had three adjacent rooms, although only the outer walls and a pointed, bricked-up portal survive. A deep well is cut in the rock outside the east front.

The surviving portion of Pernštejn Castle was built during the second half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th . Its rubble walls are faced with stucco, with doors and windows of white marble.

Reconstruction was begun after fire damage in 1457 by Jan of Pernštejn (d 1475), High Chamberlain and Regent of Moravia, and his sons. Jan built a residential wing over the gable wall, the rooms being accessible from the vaulted corridor of the old rampart. The room on the second floor of the south-east corner has a rib vault with pear-shaped ribs springing from massive pyramidal corbels.

The vault of the former chapel on the same floor has a keystone bearing the emblem of Jan’s wife, Bohunka of Lomnice. Jan’s son Vratislav (d 1496) completed the alterations of the residential quarter above the gable end, where he built a vaulted bay window embellished with the arms of his wife, Ludmila of Kunštát. The floors were linked by spiral staircases at the north and south sides. The old building seems to have been extended at this time towards the west, with vaulted cellars divided by transverse walls.

Pernstejn Castle underwent its most comprehensive changes when it was held by Vratislav’s brotherVilém (1435–1521), High Steward of Bohemia, a man distinguished for his learning, tolerance and advanced views on husbandry.

He was wealthy enough to rebuild all his castles, and he contributed particularly to the development of military architecture, as shown by the fortification ofKunětická Hora, and the castles of Pardubice and Pernštejn. He surrounded the earlier buildings of Pernštejn with ramparts, reinforced with three towers at strategic points.

The most up-to-date fortifications were those built across the ridge of the headland: their most effective defensive element was the barbican with two levels of loopholes and a narrow corridor to protect the outpost tower. While these fortifications were being built restoration work was also under way inside the residential quarters of the Pernštejn Castle.

The date 1518 is given on Vilém’s coat of arms in the bay window. The ground floor was provided with reticulated honeycomb vaulting (the same as in Kunětická Hora), and on the first floor there was a portal with intersecting mouldings, whose jambs rose from twisted plinths. These, with the honeycomb vault, indicate a stylistic link to Saxony.

There is also Renaissance influence at Pernštejn: rectangular doorways with thresholds cut from huge slabs of white Nedvědice marble. They are particularly prevalent in the south-west wing, supposed to have been completed by Vilém’s son Jan, who owned the castle until 1548.

In 1596 the Pernštejn Castle was sold, and its heyday came to an end. In 1604 it was bought by Adam Lev Licek of Rýzmburk; in 1625 it became the property of the Lichtensteins, and in 1828 it passed to the Mitrovský family of Mitrovice, who owned it until 1945.

Of the later work the stucco decoration executed after 1700 in what is now called the Knights’ Hall is notable. The castle was restored in 1862.

Pernštejn Castle Map

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Litomyšl Castle History

The 16th-century building is one of the best examples of Czech Renaissance architecture. In 1567 it was acquired by the Bohemian Chancellor, Vratislav of Pernštejn, who decided to build a luxurious and imposing family residence there. He summoned from Prague the court architect Giovanni Battista Aostalli, who was in charge of the project from 1568 to 1575.

The house was completed by Ulrico Aostalli in 1581. Its plan comprises a massive three-story block in four wings around two internal courtyards, with the chapel of St Michael in the southeast corner. The older medieval buildings were incorporated into the Renaissance complex in parts of the west and north wings.

Three sides of the square courtyard have arcades, supported on the ground floor by banded piers and on the upper floors by Tuscan and Ionic columns.

The main façade of the north wing is rusticated on the ground floor; on the upper floors, it is decorated with figurative sgraffiti depicting the Battle of the Milvian Bridge after the painting by Giulio Romano in the Sala di Costantino, Vatican, and scenes from the story of Samson (in the areas between the windows), inspired by the drawings of Maarten van Heemskerck, both sets mediated through engravings.

The Litomysl Castle was damaged by fire in 1775 and repaired during the 1790s. It was then that the theatre was constructed (1796–1797); this has a painted curtain and decorations by the Viennese court painter Josef Platzer, and it is one of the oldest theatres preserved in a European great house. In 1950 the town of Litomyšl and the house were made a national conservation area; the building now houses the Museum of Czech Music.

Litomyšl Castle Map

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When the princes of Liechtenstein wanted a place to breed horses, they came here to this village in southern Moravia, currently in the Czech Republic, and built a castle.

In fact, they built two castles, one in Lednice and the other 5 kilometers down the road in the village of Wallace.

Vineyards flourish in this fertile land, supplying succulent grapes to the centuries-old wineries. The region also boasts rich folk art, displayed annually at the Festival of Folk art in Straznice.

Lednice Castle looks like something from a book of fairy tales. And it’s all the more dramatic because of the way it sneaks up on you.

You can’t see it from the road, and it’s not until you walk down the tree-lined lane that you spot it, and the atmosphere of the past hits you with a jolt.

The princes, of course, are gone and so is the bustle of royal life, but the gardens and buildings are lovely.

The Lednice Castle has been renovated many times. The last major changes were made in the middle of the 19th century when it was recast in the English Gothic style, but it is once again undergoing extensive renovations, courtesy of the Czech taxpayers.

Lednice Castle Location

Lendice castle is located in South Moravia of the Czech Republic. It is part of Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, together with Valtice Castle.

Lednice Visitor Information

After you visit the Lednice Castle and the associated agricultural museum, take a stroll in the well-groomed English gardens or explore the tropical plants in the original greenhouse with its unique iron-frame construction.

One of the more unusual features of the estate is a 180-foot-high minaret near the pond at the end of the grounds. It is a very popular spot to visit and provides an excellent view of the gardens.

The Lednice Castle is closed on Mondays and public holidays. The season starts on April 1 and finishes on Oct. 31.

Lednice Castle Map

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Karlštejn Castle History

It was built by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, to protect the crown jewels and state treasure of the Empire, and its unique design was greatly influenced by the presence of the holy relics.

It retains much of its important program of painted decoration. The foundation stone was laid on 10 June 1348 by Arnošt of Pardubice, Archbishop of Prague, and by 1355 the Emperor was already living there. In 1357 he founded the castle chapel, and in the same year two chapels—to the Stigmata and the Virgin—were consecrated.

Karlštejn Castle Architecture

The core of the castle lies behind a massive inner wall with the outer castle in front of it; there are two gates and an independently fortified residential quarter with a moat and well tower. The buildings of the inner castle (the palace, Church Tower, and Great Tower) are built on three stepped terraces, the design reflecting Karlštejn’s special function.

On the lowest terrace stands the rectangular imperial palace, the internal design of which is related to a type created in Bohemia in the second half of the 13th century, with three floors, each with a series of rooms. West of the central hall there is always a wood-paneled chamber and to the east a parlor.

The second floor was the Emperor’s apartment, comprising a large central hall with a flat, wooden ceiling, linked to the adjacent study on the east, and the tower chapel of St Nicholas. The top floor contained the Empress’s apartments. From the second floor, a bridge leads to the first floor of the Church Tower on the second terrace. This is a two-story rectangular building, the second floor of which originally contained a hall with a wooden ceiling. An oriel chapel with two rib-vaulted bays is let into the south wall. This was at first the Emperor’s private oratory, where important relics were kept; but when the chapter was founded in 1357, the southern half of the hall was converted to the church of the Virgin (sometimes called the Lady Chapel), while the oratory was temporarily dedicated to the Stigmata, as recorded in the consecration of both chapels in the same year. Subsequently, however, the oratory was rededicated to St Catherine.

The crowning feature of the castle is the huge, rectangular, three-storey Great Tower on the highest terrace. Accessible from the second floor of the Church Tower, it has exceptionally massive masonry and is protected by its own fortification wall. A staircase on the south side leads to the second floor and the most sacred room in Karlštejn, the chapel of the Holy Cross, consecrated in 1365. It is a spacious rectangular chapel with two bays of rib vaulting. This chapel was ultimately dedicated to Stigmata and became the repository of the imperial crown jewels.

The Emperor himself may well have had a hand in the design of Karlštejn, drawing inspiration partly from the royal residences in Paris. The master mason was evidently local, trained in Bohemia in the second quarter of the 14th century: the influence of Peter Parler is not seen until the final phases of building. Painting continued after construction was finished. In the 16th century, the castle was renovated in a Renaissance style, to be restored to Gothic under the direction of Josef Mocker from 1887 to 1896.

Karlstejn Castle Location

Karlstejn Castle (Hrad Karlštejn) is located about 30 km southwest of Prague. You can reach Karlštejn by taking the E50 road from Prague. You can also take a train from Prague’s main station. The train trip will take about 40 minutes.

Entrance inside the castle’s walls is free, but to enter inside the castle itself, you have to buy a ticket, currently priced at 270 Czech Koronas (around 11 EUR) for adults. Children, students, and seniors over 65 pay only 180 CZK.

Karlstejn Castle is usually closed on Mondays but there are exceptions.
To make sure the castle is open, please consult their website at: http://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/opening-hours/

Karlštejn Castle Painting&Decoration

All three of the main buildings at Karlštejn were richly decorated with wall paintings, panel paintings, and, to a lesser extent, stained glass. Painting began with the building program and reflected the changing function of the rooms. The most important areas were decorated in gold relief stucco with encrusted hardstones.

The decoration of the imperial palace has not survived, but there were at least two interesting cycles of wall paintings. The first, mentioned in the Chronicle of Bohemia (1358) by Giovanni Marignolli, Bishop of Bisignano (d 1359), depicted the Miracle of the Finger of St Nicholas, which occurred in 1353 in the Franciscan convent in Prague.

It was painted in the Emperor’s chamber (probably near the palace chapel) and was evidently the earliest painted decoration. Of utmost importance was the so-called Luxemburg Genealogy painted in the main hall of the palace after 1355, depicting about 65 fictitious and actual members of the family, starting with Noah and ending with Charles IV.

The Genealogy is documented in the Chronica nobilissimorum durum Lotharingiae et Brabantiae ac regum Francorum (1413; Brussels, Bib. Royale Albert 1er) by Edmond de Dynter (d 1448), old descriptions of the castle and two copies of c. 1575 (the Codex Heidelbergensis, Prague, N.G., Convent of St George; Vienna, Österreich. Nbib., MS. 8330).

Two altarpieces, signed by Tomaso da Modena and probably painted in 1355 or soon after, were originally housed either in the palace or in the Church Tower: the triptych depicting the Virgin with SS Wenceslas and Palmatius (moved to the chapel of the Holy Cross in 1365) and the diptych with the Virgin and Child, Man of Sorrows and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (found during the 19th century in the church of St Palmác in the lower castle, now in the church of the Virgin).

The oldest wall paintings of the Church Tower have survived, some painted before the consecration of 1357: in the altar niche of St Catherine’s Chapel is a votive picture of the Virgin and Child, with SS Peter and Paul on the sides of the niche. The altar frontal bears a Crucifixion with St Catherine at the side. Above the entrance to the chapel, the Emperor and Empress are depicted holding the reliquary cross, and on the side wall below the vault are the remains of the figures of SS Vojtěch, Wenceslas,

Vitus and four unidentified saints holding the relics of the Holy Cross. The painted decoration was partly destroyed when the walls were covered in an encrustation of hardstones and nails to secure the relics. The window contains the only surviving glass painting at Karlštejn, a Crucifixion (c. 1360), and in the so-called connecting corridor is a wall painting of an angel with a censer.

In the adjoining chapel of the Virgin (formerly the hall), there were originally four cycles of wall paintings, all dating from after 1357, of which only one has survived: the Relic Scenes showing Charles IV accepting, from two different rulers, the relics of Christ’s Passion and placing them into a reliquary cross. The second, partly destroyed cycle, which occupies much of the remaining walls, depicts scenes from the Apocalypse.

The third cycle, originally above some of the apocalypse scenes, is lost, but it depicted the Holy Trinity, Prophets, and Apostles, set between figures of Charles IV and his first three wives, Blanche of Valois (1317–48), Anne of the Palatinate (1329–53) and Anne of Svidnica (1339–62).

The fourth cycle consisted of small Christological and Marian scenes in the window embrasures, the remains of which survive. Also belonging to this group is a badly decayed, illusionistic picture of four people looking out of a window and a jeweled box with relics of the Passion and the Virgin.

Charles IV paid the most attention to the decoration of the chapel of the Holy Cross in the Great Tower. The niche containing the crown jewels above the altar is concealed behind Tomaso da Modena’s triptych. The vaults are covered with gold leaf and gilded glass, and the lower walls are encrusted with hardstones, as in St Catherine’s Chapel.

The upper walls contain nearly 130 half-length figures of saints painted on framed panels, originally with relics fixed to their frames: a crocodile’s head, probably thought to be a relic of St George, was found in the wall. Five panels showing only the preliminary sketches are preserved. Under the vault on the altar, the wall is depicted the Crucifixion

The windows were originally glazed with hardstones; the embrasures contain the remains of the cycles of the Life of the Virgin and Life of Christ, and scenes of the Revelation, including the Adoration of the Lamb and the apocalyptic God with angels and Evangelist symbols. The Emperor’s painter, Master Theodoric, was paid for the decoration of the chapel in 1367.

The staircase of the Great Tower had three cycles of paintings, finished after 1370 and now crudely painted over and copied onto new plaster: the first depicted the Life of St Ludmilla, the second the Life of St Wenceslas, and the third showed Czech rulers and other important historical figures. Over the entrance to the chapel of the Holy Cross, Charles IV was shown standing before the reliquary cross and reading a book, in the presence of the Empress and the heir to the throne, the future Wenceslas IV, his wife, and high ecclesiastical office-holders. The vault was decorated with angels holding musical instruments. Even here relics were found bricked up in the wall.

The decorative program at Karlštejn expressed Charles’s personal and dynastic ambitions while publicizing his interpretation of imperial power and the cult of religious relics. Except for the altars by Tomaso da Modena, the decoration is by artists who came to the Prague imperial court from the west, and whose main work was apparently the lost decoration of Prague Castle.

These painters laid the basis of the flourishing school of Bohemian painting in the second half of the 14th century. The wall and panel paintings of Karlštejn are of superb quality, with sophisticated coloring, the use of light and shade in drapery forms, and naturalistic physiognomies.

The lost Luxemburg Genealogy and paintings in the Church Tower were by several different painters. The so-called Masters of the Genealogy apparently worked in a style influenced by French court paintings and specialized in ‘portraiture’. The Relic Scenes in the church of the Virgin are usually attributed to the same painters. The painter of the Apocalypse is presumed to be independent of this group. The part played by other artists cannot safely be determined.

The Masters of the Genealogy worked on other paintings in Karlštejn, notably the sketches for panel paintings and some of the wall paintings in the chapel of the Holy Cross. The panels and the remaining wall paintings in this chapel were by younger painters. The decoration of the chapel of the Holy Cross was the culmination of the so-called Soft style, the later panels and wall paintings showing a move towards new concepts of space and more slender figures. This new style took over in the staircase paintings, which were the immediate predecessors of the paintings from the second half of the 1370s in Prague Cathedral.

The Emperor’s painter, Nicholas Wurmser of Strasbourg, was clearly involved in the first campaign of decoration. He is often identified as the main Master of the Genealogy or as the Master of the Apocalypse. Wurmser had an estate in the village of Mořina, near Karlštejn, as did the Emperor’s second painter, Master Theodoric. The latter is accredited mainly with panel paintings in the chapel of the Holy Cross, but if the panel painters were merely assistants to the masters of the preliminary sketches, Theodoric could also have helped with the Genealogy. The staircase cycles are usually attributed to Master Osvald, on the assumption that he worked on Karlštejn before going to Prague Cathedral. Despite the literature on the paintings of Karlštejn, a number of questions remain unresolved.

Karlštejn Castle Map

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Český Šternberk Castle is located in the Czech Republic, overlooking the River Sázava, around 60 km south-east of Prague.

It is one of two castles founded by Zdeslav, a leading member of the court of Ottokar II Přemysl (reg1253–78).

Český Šternberk Castle History

Český (Bohemian) Šternberk was founded c. 1240 and became the family seat of Zdeslav’s descendants, the lords of Šternberk. Český Šternberk castle was completed by 1300 and, although it was later modified several times, the original medieval nucleus has been preserved, an interesting example of the development of fortified architecture.

Disposed along a rocky ridge above the river, the Cesky Sternberk Castle has a tower at each end. The entrance, on the north side, was protected by a massive cylindrical tower à bec, now partly covered by later buildings.

The tower adjoins the long, narrow palace, which lies on the steep eastern side of the ridge and was originally protected on the west by a fortified courtyard (later reduced by infilling). The south side of the castle was protected by a huge quadrangular residential tower with a thickened gable wall, beyond which are the moat and the saddle dividing the castle from the summit of the ridge.

In the mid-15th century, Český Štern berk was a base for the revolt of the Catholic aristocracy against the Hussite king George of Poděbrady (reg 1457–71). In 1476 it was confiscated and dismantled, but later in the century, the new owners repaired it, adding a system of fortifications forward of the original ones, of which the defensive towers are the main surviving parts.

An outer castle to the north was protected by ramparts and several bastions, accessible from the main castle by a drawbridge with a free-standing prismatic tower.

Towers were also built on both sides of the south saddle, that between the moat and the saddle being rounded, approximately wedge-shaped, and fortified on either side. These towers were also connected to the main castle by drawbridges.

From 1655 to 1666 the Český Šternberk castle modified the process including the addition of rich Renaissance-style stucco decoration to the large hall and chapel. In the second quarter of the 18th century, a park was created, within which was built the Lower Castle (destroyed in 1951).

In 1795 the south cylindrical tower was converted to a summer house and its fortifications into a terrace, connected to the house by a masonry bridge in 1829.

In the first quarter of the 20th century, a copy of the 13th-century portal was built into the southern cylindrical tower, with the medieval, badly reconstructed tympanum of the Virgin. The Český Šternberk Castle now houses a collection of antiquities.

Český Šternberk Castle Visitor information

Český Šternberk Castle is closed on Mondays. English tours are available and they cost 170 CZK for adults (approximately 7 EUR). Night tours are also available but at least a group of 10 people is required.

Český Šternberk Castle Map

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