Karlstejn Castle is a large gothic castle located about 30 kilometers from Prague. It was built by Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles's collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire. The construction of the castle was finished in 1365.
The village below the castle is filled with tacky souvenir stalls and very expensive restaurants. Once you arrive at the castle you can enter within the walls for free but access to the inside of the castle requires paying for a guided tour.
Fortunately you can make your visit a lot more enjoyable by taking 12 km or 20 km hiking trips in the unexploited forests of the Cesky kras protected area around Karlstejn, hopefully relieving you of some of your unease after visiting the Castle itself.
At the outbreak of the Hussite wars the castle became the place for safekeeping of the Czech coronation jewels, which were kept here, with the exception of several time breaks, for nearly 200 years. The castle was reconstructed in late Gothic style after 1480 and then in Renaissance style in the last quarter of the 16th century.
The present appearance of the castle comes from the last reconstruction at the end of the 19th century. The core of the castle consisted of three parts placed on three levels-differentiated terraces; every level express different importance. On the lowest terrace there stood the Imperial Palace, above it there was the Marian Tower and the Big Tower stood the highest.
From the Well tower and Burgrave's palace located as the lowest point turists can walk up to the majestic five-storied Imperial palace and further up towards the Marian tower. And finally at the top of the headland there is the monumental 60 m high and separately fortified Great tower.
The original decoration of wall paintings dating back to the 14th century are interesting to see as well as the whole collection of 129 panel paintings by Master Theodoric in the Chapel of the Holy Cross (the world largest if its kind), the largest portrait gallery of Czech rulers in the country, exhibited replica of St. Wenceslas crown – the coronation crown of the Czech Kings.
November 2013
I. C.
