Location: 13 km (8 mi) Southeast of Rakovnik Map
Constructed: 13th century
Tel. 313 558 120
Open:
Mar 9am- 12pm, 1pm- 3pm Sat, Sun
Apr- Oct: 9am- 12pm, 1pm- 3pm Tue- Sun
Nov, Dec: 9am- 3pm Sat, Sun
Křivoklát (Pürglitz in German) is one of the oldest and most important medieval castles of Czech princes and kings. It is located at an altitude of 285-290 meters above sea level on a rocky promontory above the Rakovník stream, a tributary of the Berounky river in the territory of the town of Křivoklát in the Rakovník district in the Central Bohemian region. The castle is owned by the Czech Republic and is open to the public. It has been protected as a cultural monument since 1965, and in 1989 it was entered on the list of national cultural monuments of the Czech Republic. It is managed and made available to the public by the National Institute of Monuments.
Křivoklát first served as a hunting castle for princes and kings. Kosmas mentions Křivoklát in connection with the years 1110–1113, when Prince Vladislav I was supposed to imprison his cousin Ota Olomoucký. However, the archaeological survey found no settlement from the 11th–12th centuries. century, and therefore it is assumed that Kosm's mention refers to another place of the same name. During the survey of the old rampart in the southern park, fragments dating to the early Middle Ages were found. Nevertheless, the possibility that the castle mentioned in 1110 stood on the current site remains improbable.
Ostrožna was already inhabited in prehistoric times. Archeological research found ceramics of the Štítár culture from the Late Bronze Age, the remains of a grid structure and part of a hut in the area of the fence. A defensive ditch from the same period captured in the excavation in the gate also dates from the same period. According to the distribution of the individual finds, it is assumed that the Štítara hillfort was larger than the medieval castle. Ceramic finds from the Hallstatt and Lateen periods also come from the courtyard.
The castle was most likely founded around 1230 at the turn of the
reign of kings Přemysl Otakar I and Václav I. In the first half of the
13th century, it became one of the residential castles of the Czech
kings and was managed by a burgrave. Václav I and Přemysl Otakar II
often stayed here. He completed the rebuilding of the castle and had the
castle chapel built. After the Prague Castle fire in 1316, Queen Eliška
Přemyslovna took refuge in Křivoklát with her children. After the rift
between Jan of Luxemburg and Eliška Přemyslovna and his two-month
imprisonment at Lokti, Karel IV spent his childhood (1319–1323)
separated from his mother here. (1316–1378), then still as Wenceslaus.
From there he left for France on April 4, 1323, and eight years later he
returned here with his pregnant wife Blanca of Valois. Their daughter
Markéta, the future Hungarian queen, was born in Křivoklát. Later,
however, Karel preferred the Karlštejn castle he founded. Václav IV
often stayed here before the Točník castle was built.
Křivoklát
Castle was heavily damaged by fires many times in its history. It burned
here every 200 years. In 1422, the castle was damaged by fire for the
first time. In this fire, among other things, the so-called Manský dům
disappeared, whose relics were archaeologically investigated by Tomáš
Durdík in the eighties of the twentieth century. The results of this
research not only provided a completely unique set of often very
luxurious daily necessities, but also a thorough knowledge of a very
uniquely preserved archaeological site. The Mansk house was not restored
in any form after the fire and its remains were left completely
unnoticed and gradually overgrown with vegetation.
In 1471, the
newly elected king, Vladislav II, left the castle. Jagiellonian to buy
out and rebuild in late Gothic style. It was then that the castle took
on the form in which it has been preserved in its main features to this
day.
In the 16th century, the castle became the property of the
Habsburgs, who established a state prison here. Under Emperor Rudolph
II. Edward Kelley was imprisoned here. The couple Ferdinand II also
lived in the castle. Tylorský and Filipína Welserová. It is said that
thanks to the Philippines, the conditions of the imprisoned members of
the Fraternal Unity of Bishop Jan Augusta and his secretary Jakub Bílek
have improved significantly. In 1597 another fire almost destroyed the
castle. It also burned here during the Thirty Years' War during the
reign of Ferdinand III. On June 3, 1643, a fire damaged 38 rooms here.
In the 17th century, the castle was in the hands of the Valdštejn and
Fürstenberk families. The last big fire that affected it on August 18,
1826, broke out in the apartment of the chief administrator. After 1880,
the castle underwent a significant purist reconstruction, which was
carried out by the architects of the completion of the cathedral of St.
Welcome Josef Mocker and Kamil Hilbert. Hilbert's reconstruction of the
Queen's (north) wing was the biggest hit. This had previously partially
collapsed and the rest was carefully dismantled including all the
architectural details. Therefore, only the ground floor survived from
the original building.
After the First World War, the Ministry of
Agriculture imposed forced administration on the Křivoklát estate and
Stanislav Ambrož was appointed administrator. Land reform followed and
in 1929 Max Egon II. Fürstenberg sold Křivoklát to the Czechoslovak
state for 118.5 million crowns. Currently, the castle is managed by the
National Monument Institute.
The castle served as a dreaded state prison after the accession of
the Habsburgs to the Czech throne. However, it also served as a prison
before. Famous prisoners were:
Otto II Olomouc (1085–1126), in 1110
he was imprisoned here by the Czech prince Vladislav I.
Jindřich of
Šumburk, Vyšehrad canon, imprisoned in 1318
Henry of Habsburg, Duke
of Austria, from 1322 for one year
Charles IV (1316–1378), in early
childhood. Karel was taken from his mother Eliška Přemyslovná, who was
planning a rebellion against her husband Jan Luxemburgský. And so was
Charles IV. transferred to Křivoklát. The stay of Charles IV can be
viewed in this sense. like in prison.
four leaders of the rebellion
of Kutnohorské havíř in August 1496. Three of them were executed in the
courtyard, the fourth escaped when he stunned the executioner. Another
ten leaders of the uprising were executed on the site of today's Church
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Poděbrady.
Jan Augusta
(1500–1572), bishop of the Fraternal Unity, was imprisoned in the castle
for sixteen long years (1547–1563). He was guarded by twenty guards from
Germany so that he could not negotiate with them. He tried to escape,
was caught and tortured.
Jakub Bílek (1516–1581), brother priest and
secretary of Jan Augusta, described August's hardships, imprisoned for
thirteen years.
Edward Kelley (1555–1597), an English alchemist who
gave Emperor Rudolph II. he promised the elixir of life and the
transformation of base metal into gold. When he killed one of the
courtiers, Rudolph ran out of patience and was imprisoned here.
1109–1110 mention of a hunting station in the Kosmos Chronicle
1319–1323 forced stay of the later emperor Charles IV.
1335 Blanca of
Valois gave birth to her daughter Margéta here
1380 Wenceslas IV.
received the delegation of the English king Richard II at the castle.
1422 fire
1597 fire
1643 fire
1655 (1658) mortgaged to the
Schwarzenbergs
1685 sold to the Valdštejn family
1723/1733–1734/1756 passed to the Fürstenbergs by marriage
1826 fire
1929 Maximilian Egon II. sold the castle to the state
1951
termination of operation of the brewery
? in the administration of
the State Monument Institute of Central Bohemia
1994 (July) – 2000 in
the administration of the State Castles of Křivoklátsk (SHK,
contribution organization established by the Ministry of Culture of the
Czech Republic, together with the castles, Krakovec, Točník and Žebrák)
2001–2002 in the administration of the State Monument Institute of
Central Bohemia, based in Prague
2003 (January 1) in the
administration of the National Monument Institute
The castle stands on a false promontory formed by ancient mountain debris and clay-like slates, which were used as building material. The Rakovnický stream flows around the steep slopes of the spur on three sides, and easy access remains only on the eastern side.
The construction site of the castle has an approximately triangular
plan. It was protected by a perimeter wall and another transverse wall
divided it into a larger lower and smaller upper castle (castle core).
The entrance gate was located under the square tower in the southwest
corner. Along the western wall stood a building that probably served as
the burgrave's house. A rectangular hall palace was built behind the
transverse wall and a large round residential tower (donjon) connected
to the walls at the eastern end. The palace was later rebuilt many
times, and the Romanesque windows on the ground floor have been
preserved from its oldest phase. The ramparts at the base of its donjon
are reinforced in such a way that they fill the entire space of the
corner, thus forming a massive edge. After the middle of the thirteenth
century, residential premises and farm buildings were further expanded.
A two-room building was added to the southern wall, and the rest of
the lower courtyard was divided into several parts by transverse walls.
In the northern corner, where the well is located, there were
outbuildings, among which was a simple dugout. In the palace, the
passage of a new gate to the upper castle was created, which is equipped
with a sedilia and arched by two fields of a cross vault. The new
passage was necessary because the other sides of the courtyard of the
upper castle began to be filled with the construction of new palaces.
Among them is the older flat-ceilinged south wing, whose ground floor
still had Romanesque windows.
These modifications were smoothly
followed by further expansion of the representation spaces. In the lower
courtyard, next to the northern wall, a second palace precinct connected
with the power ambitions of Přemysl Otakar II began to be created, in
which important visitors were to be accommodated. It was formed by two
opposite palace wings, which squeezed a narrow courtyard between them.
The southern side was closed by an arcade with an entrance from the
lower courtyard. In the west wing there was a large hall and a wooden
chamber. A northern wing with a toilet tower was created in the castle
core, and the eastern side was enclosed by a wall. A small courtyard and
a trapezoidal courtyard enclosed by the palace wings were thus created
under the large tower. It was surrounded on all sides by a single-story
arcaded walkway. On the first floor of the western palace, a large hall
was created, arched by four fields of six-part vaults and lit by eight
tracery pointed windows. On the floor of the southern palace there was a
smaller hall, several rooms with barrel vaults and cross vaults, and the
entire wing ended with a chapel. The northwest corner of the lower
castle was occupied by a square tower.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the castle burned down.
The younger palace precinct in the lower castle quickly disappeared, and
the other buildings were only kept in serviceable condition. Extensive
reconstruction was started by Wenceslaus IV, who liked Křivoklát
especially at the beginning of his reign and after 1390 began to give
preference to other castles.
Modifications of Wenceslas IV.
touched the whole castle. A Passage Tower with a new gate was built
approximately halfway along the length of the southern wall. Because of
it, the terrain in a large part of the lower courtyard had to be
lowered, and therefore its division by transverse walls disappeared,
with the exception of the wall that separated the well courtyard. The
old gate has been removed. The entire castle was surrounded by a new
fence wall. In the northern corner, it was connected to the narrow area
of the so-called Manx house, which consisted of an elongated courtyard
and a well-built palace topped by a square tower. A new access road
protected by a pair of gates led to the castle along the southwest side
of the palace. A rectangular building, perhaps also topped with a tower,
was built in the southwest corner. Along the western wall of the lower
courtyard, a new burgrave building equipped with a large hall on the
first floor was built. It was built by the court smelter according to
well-executed architectural details. The lowering of the terrain of the
lower courtyard forced the modification of the gate to the upper castle,
the level of which had to be significantly lowered. At the same time,
the northern wing of the palace was also rebuilt.
During the
Hussite Wars, the castle was heavily damaged. Due to its condition, the
burgrave's building served only as a granary, and the burned-out area of
the Manx house was never restored. Repairs took place only during the
reign of King George of Poděbrady. The protruding building in the
southwest corner was shortened and a three-room building of the new
burgrave was built along the northern wall of the lower castle.
Křivoklát was the only royal castle that King Vladislav Jagiellonian
had in Bohemia. He therefore devoted considerable attention to its
reconstruction, and the modifications made to the residential part of
the castle turned it into a residence that was among the best residences
in Central Europe. At the same time, the defense system was modernized,
in which a number of modern elements of active defense were used. The
reconstruction was directed by masters Benedikt Rejt and Hans Spiess.
The castle core was completely rebuilt. The arcades and the dividing
wall between the courtyard and the courtyard under the great tower were
pulled down. The individual floors of the palaces were connected by a
new four-legged staircase. With the exception of the ground floor, the
northern palace wing was also demolished and rebuilt. The Great Hall in
the Western Palace received a new vault and a bay window above the
passage of the gate. Its facade is decorated with reliefs of Vladislav
Jagiellonian and his son Ludvík. Decorative architectural details,
including the so-called Manx loggia at the gate and the altar in the
chapel, come from the workshop of master Hanuš Špiss. The large tower
was also modified, gaining a new entrance on the first floor, which was
accessible from the northern palace wing. Its floors were connected by a
staircase in the strength of the wall. Both the palace and the tower
were finished with half-timbered or half-timbered defensive mezzanines
with a number of bay windows.
In the lower castle, the buildings
along the northern wall, including the wall itself, were demolished. The
old tower in the northern corner was replaced by the prismatic Huderka
tower with a brick helmet. Along the original wall, a number of Manx
houses with kitchens were built, and just below the castle core, a
second kitchen object, which was partially pushed into the fence.
Passage through the fence is made possible by an arched corridor. The
development along the western wall also expanded. The castle brewery was
located to the west of the Passage Tower and connected to it was the
newly built two-story Hejtmanský dům.
The main line of defense
became a fence wall with covered shooting galleries and bay windows. It
was protected by a number of progressive elements of active artillery
defense, such as a battery tower, a bollwerk or a round Golden Bastion
on the southwest corner. The gate in the Passable Tower was secured by a
new rampart with casemates. The access road to it was protected by a
moat with a low gate tower. It was later replaced by a stage gate in the
transverse wall, which was demolished only in the nineteenth century.
During the Renaissance, almost no construction was done on the
castle. Until King Ferdinand I had small repairs made to the windows,
fireplaces and interior doors so that the castle could be lived in.
Emperor Rudolph II he had some buildings fitted with sgraffito plaster,
but otherwise he did not attend to the castle, and even after the fire
in 1597 he had only the most necessary repairs carried out. A project
for a larger repair was drawn up in 1638, but it did not take place.
Only a fire that destroyed 38 rooms made King Ferdinand III. for repair,
which lasted until 1644. Only the large tower remained unrepaired. The
southern palace wing was repaired again in 1685. Around 1756, the
Fürstenbergs had the great royal hall divided into two floors. A number
of rooms were created in the lower one, and the upper one began to serve
as a warehouse.
The fire of August 18, 1826 destroyed practically
the entire castle. Repairs began only in 1856 and, with many breaks,
lasted until 1921. From 1929, the Czech state continued them, but the
interruption caused by the Second World War meant that they were not
completed until 1952.
Late Gothic Chapel of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary from the time
of King Vladislav II. Jagiellonian is located in the southern wing of
the castle core. It replaced the older St. Wenceslas chapel from the
thirteenth century. Instead of the original straight end, it got a
polygonal closure and was covered by a net vault. In the side walls
there are rows of seats separated by a helical central column and
decorated with mitred arches with crabs. The portal to the sacristy is
decorated with a relief plant ornament.
The altar is a work of
art from the period after 1490, the author of which is an unknown master
who probably came from the circle of Hanuš Spiess from Frankfurt am
Main. It has the form of a winged ark with a wood carving of the
Coronation of the Virgin Mary in the central part, which is complemented
by painted scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and saints. The
author of the paintings is an unknown painter referred to as the Master
of the Crooked Altar. The gaze of the Virgin Mary is directed to the
large stone seat on the right in the presbytery, where there used to be
a place intended for the monarch and his family. Above the seat there
were originally two coats of arms of the Kingdom of Bohemia, but during
the restoration of the chapel at the beginning of the twentieth century,
they were removed and replaced with Fürstenberg family coats of arms.
The large tower in the castle core is one of the less common donjons, as residential towers in Bohemia were usually square. It has been part of the castle since the first construction phase. It is 42 meters high and twelve meters in diameter. Originally, the tower was entered through a portal at the level of the second floor from the southern palace wing via a drawbridge. The wooden structure to which the bridge adjoined burned down in the last big fire of the castle in 1826 and was not restored later. Secondarily, a new portal was opened on the first floor, which was entered from the northern palace wing. The entrance on the ground floor, which leads to the starvation chamber, dates from 1750. After breaking through it, six skeletal remains were found here. The defensive function of the tower is also evidenced by the strength of the walls. On the courtyard side, where there was no real danger, it measures about 2.5-3 meters. On the outside, where the tower is connected to the wall, the width of the wall reaches up to ten meters.