Karlštejn Castle

Karlštejn Castle is in Czechia, a country in the middle of Europe.

It sits on a rocky hill covered with trees. Its highest tower is called the Great Tower.

Karlštejn Castle towers on a rocky hill over the Berounka River, about 20 kilometers from Prague, the capital of Czechia.

Its buildings step up the hill, one above another. At the very top stands the Great Tower, 60 meters high, with thick walls around it. Today the castle belongs to the state, and visitors can tour it.

Charles University describes Karlštejn as one of the most important and best-known heritage sites in the country, towering on a rocky hill over the Berounka River some twenty kilometers from Prague.

The castle's own site says it has always belonged to the king or to a state institution, never to private owners, and is owned by the state today. Its buildings climb the hill in their original stepped arrangement, with the 60-meter Great Tower and its massive fortifications at the highest point.

Over hundreds of years, builders fixed and changed the castle many times.

The castle you see today looks the way it was made about 130 years ago.

After 1480 the castle was rebuilt in the late Gothic style, and late in the 1500s in the Renaissance style. Its present look comes from a big restoration at the end of the 1800s, led by the architect Josef Mocker.

Inside, visitors can see a gallery of portraits of the kings of Bohemia, a copy of the royal Crown of Bohemia and a castle well.

The official site traces the changes: a late Gothic rebuilding after 1480, Renaissance work in the last quarter of the 16th century, and a purist reconstruction at the end of the 19th century that gave the castle its present appearance. Charles University dates the major reconstruction from 1887, with Josef Mocker in charge from 1892 to 1899; it says some changes did not follow the original form, but the work saved the decaying building.

The castle also shows the largest portrait gallery of the kings of Bohemia in Czechia, a replica of the royal Crown of Bohemia and a unique castle well.

In this photo, the castle stands above green trees under a blue sky.

Look at its pointed gray roofs and its long walls!

This photo was taken on 27 July 2009. The tall, pale Great Tower with its steep gray roof stands on the left, and a long palace with a wooden upper story stretches to the right. Walls with notches along the top run below, above a wooded hill.

Karlštejn is also known as the setting of a comedy play, A Night at Karlštejn, by the Czech poet Jaroslav Vrchlický.

The photograph (27 July 2009, from Panoramio) looks up at the castle from below: the Great Tower on the left, a round corner tower and crenellated walls, and the long palace buildings with steep slate roofs and a timber-framed upper story on the right, above a wooded slope.

Charles University counts Karlštejn among the most popular tourist destinations in Czechia, visited by hundreds of thousands of people. The castle is also known as the setting of Jaroslav Vrchlický's comedy A Night at Karlštejn.