Karlstejn

The castle is named after its founder Charles IV, king of the Czech Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor. It was founded in 1348 as the summer residence of Charles IV, as well as the repository of Czech royal regalia and holy relics , the gathering of which was the passion of this monarch. The first stone in the foundation of Karlstejn was laid by a close friend and adviser to Charles IV, the Archbishop of Prague Arnost from Pardubice . The castle was built under the personal supervision of the emperor in a short time according to the project of the Frenchman Mathieu of Arras (Czech Matiaš z Arasu). Already in 1355, two years before the end of construction, Emperor Karl settled in his new residence.

The architectural solution of the castle was based on the principle of the stepwise arrangement of buildings included in the architectural ensemble . Each subsequent construction of the castle rises above the previous one, and the top of this ensemble is formed by the Big Tower with the chapel of the Holy Cross, which housed the royal relics and the crown of the Holy Roman Empire . The large tower in terms of dimensions is 25 by 17 meters, the wall thickness is 4 meters. The Upper Castle complex is formed by the Big Tower, the Imperial Palace, the Mariana Tower with the Church of the Virgin Mary, below is the Lower Castle with a large courtyard, burggrave and the gateway to which the road leads. At the lowest point of the castle is a well tower. The depth of the well is 80 meters, the mechanism of lifting water was driven by the efforts of two people.

In addition to false dungeons in the Northern French style, the Karlstejn ensemble includes several masterpieces of religious architecture of the XIV century - the Church of the Virgin Mary with murals, the Catherine’s chapel with polychrome Gothic stained glass and precious lining from jasper , agate and cornelian, and the Cross chapel with an image completed by 1365 and the saints of the Gothic craftsman Theodoric - the imperial response to Saint-Chapelle in Paris .

The management and defense of the castle was headed by the burggraph , in whose submission was a garrison of vassals who had estates around the castle.

During the Hussite Wars in Karlstejn, in addition to Roman imperial regalia, treasures and regalia of Czech kings were also exported from the Prague Castle (including the crown of St. Wenceslas , who was crowned by the kings of the Czech Republic, starting from Charles IV. It was returned to Prague Castle only in 1619 ) The siege of Karlstein by the Hussites in 1427 lasted 7 months, but the castle was never taken. During the Thirty Years War in 1620, Karlstein was besieged by the Swedes, but they also failed to capture the castle. In 1436, by order of the emperor Sigismund, the second son of Charles IV, the royal treasures were removed from Karlstejn and are currently stored partly in Prague and partly in Vienna.

In the XVI century, the castle was allocated space for the storage of the most important documents of the imperial archive . At the end of the XVI century, the palace chambers were converted in the Renaissance style, however, after 1625, a decline began associated with the name of Empress Eleanor (wife of Ferdinand II ), who pledged Karlstejn to the Czech nobleman Jan Kavka, which led to his transfer to private hands. The widow of Emperor Leopold managed to return the castle to royal property by paying a deposit.

Empress Maria Theresa transferred the castle into the possession of the Hradčany boarding house of noble maidens, who is considered the last owner of the property until it became state property in Czechoslovakia .

The first concern for the restoration of Karlstejn was shown by Emperor Franz I (then a treasure trove of XIV century jewelry was discovered in the castle wall), and Karlshtein gained his present appearance after a very free restoration undertaken in 1887-99. Restoration work was carried out under the guidance of the professor of the Vienna Academy of Arts F. Schmidt and his student J. Motzker , who, among other things, managed to complete the construction of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle. Some experts argue that Charles IV would not have recognized his castle after “ restoration work ” using Portland cement ; for this reason, UNESCO is in no hurry to recognize it as a World Heritage Site .

After the transfer of Karlštejn castle to state ownership, the castle is open to tourists and is one of the most popular tourist sites in the Czech Republic, taking second place in popularity in the Czech Republic after Prague.

• Cuba N. Karlstejn Castle. - Prague, 1999. ISBN 80-85094-95-9
• Yuvalova E.P. Czech Gothic of the heyday (1350-1420) . - M .: Nauka , 1998 .-- 222 p. - ISBN 5-02-011339-5 .

• Official website of the Karlstejn Museum (English) (Czech)