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Karlštejn is one of few castles that are open almost for the whole duration of the year. It regularly opens at 9 a.m.; the closing time depends on the month of the year. The longest opening hours are during summer holidays when the castle is open until 6p.m. Visitors can make use of two sightseeing tours. An adult entry ticket for the first sightseeing tour costs 130 CZK, a child and other special categories of citizens pay 70 CZK. The second sightseeing tour involves a visit of the Chapel of the Holy Rood and it is more expensive. An adult pays 300 CZK; children, invalids and seniors 150 CZK.

Karlštejn offers:

Imperial Palace

COURTIER HALL

This place is, in historical literature, also called the Hall of Knights. The room served mainly as an assembly point of the Royal Escort and was in the 14^th century, together with other interiors, lined with wooden walls for the purpose of insulation. Preserved fragments of this wooden interior can still be seen in the hall.

To the south, towards the valley, the hall used to have four windows that were located in a big niche with an arch that was restored to its original condition at the end of the 19^th century. The arch was closed with glassed doors leading to a spacious balcony. Currently a big model that evokes the appearance of the second half of the 14^th century castle is located at this place. 
Large modern maps document the extent of the Czech kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Charles IV.

 HALL OF KNIGHTS

This room contains a few cabinets in which knight’s vassals from Karlštejn kept their armour. Doors of every cabinet were decorated with a painted coat of arms of knights and with their names. Apart from cabinets, there are also preserved painted door panels. Below them are located registry cabinets that served for important documents. On the eastern side, in the area of a semi-cylindrical tower, stands the Chapel of St Nicholas. The chapel used to be decorated with mural paintings that were already in the beginning of the 16^thth century, replaced with a decorative painting that was later covered and it is going to be gradually restored. On the altar stands a gothic sculpture of St Nicholas from the times of Charles IV, which belongs to the original castle features. On the right side of the chapel hangs a late gothic altar picture that used to belong to the Saint Palmacio Church that stands near to the castle. The picture shows Jesus Christ, St Palmacio and St Wenceslas. A copy of Jan Očko of Vlašim’s votive picture depicts Emperor Charles IV and young Václav IV kneeling at the feet of the Virgin Mary. In the bottom part of the picture we can see the second Prague archbishop, Charles’s confidant and the first Czech Cardinal, kneeling among Czech patron saints.

century marked as seriously damaged and beyond repair. They were, in the 19

HALL OF FOREFATHERS

The main representative hall of the Imperial Palace used to be decorated with a mural painting of Charles’s existing and fictional ancestors. The family tree on the walls of the hall was supposed to demonstrate glory and the long tradition of Charles’s ancestors and had a significant importance for royal prestige.

The Hall currently serves as a portrait gallery, introducing the existing and fictional ancestors of Charles IV from the side of the emperor’s mother Eliška Přemyslovna – members of the Czech Přemyslid dynasty. In this way the Hall of Forefathers takes up the original intention to introduce the ancient origin of Charles IV. The Gallery of portraits was founded between the 17^th and 18^th century, the pictures are however, based on older artworks that were painted in the 15^th century or probably even later, in the time of Charles IV.

BANQUETING HALL

The Banqueting Hall, together with the Hall of Forefathers, was undoubtedly one of the main representative halls of the Imperial Palace. Currently a part of the collection of historical portraits of Czech kings and Roman emperors, which is a continuation of the portraits in the Hall of Forefathers, is exhibited in this area.

The interior is decorated with many unique examples of dishes (bowls, spoons, forks, knives) from gothic and renaissance periods, which were part of the original equipment of the castle. An interesting example of period hygiene is the so called lavabo which used to serve for washing hands and can be found next to the medieval pillar.

AUDIENCE CHAMBER

The walls of the Audience Chamber are panelled with wooden coffers as is the ceiling. The big part of the coffer comes from the time of Charles IV and therefore the hall maintained its original character. Windows’ niches are decorated with preserved mural paintings, especially the coat-of-arms of Rome City with the Latin inscription from the Golden Bulla: "Roma caput mundi regit orbis frena rotundi", which commemorates imperial royalty.

The room used to serve as the Emperor’s study in which he also received both private and state visitors and gave audiences.

 BEDROOM of CHARLES IV (EMPEROR’S PRIVATE ROOM)

The room with a chapel used to serve as the Emperor and his son Václav’s private room when they were staying at Karlštejn. It is decorated with an unusual fabric which is a copy of textiles that used to belong to Charles IV. Similar textiles used to serve not only for decoration but also for warming the place. There are also some personal items that used to belong to Charles IV such as an alabaster statuette of the Virgin Mary from the beginning of the 14^th century, which Charles IV acquired probably in France, or a travelling altar (diptych) made by Tommas da Modena, a painter of Italian origin, who was working in Bohemia at the court of Charles IV. Another item that used to be part of Charles’s private collection is the picture of Madonna Aracoeli. You can currently see its copy that is displayed in the room. It was painted by the Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece and was probably given to Charles by Pope Urban in 1368. It has a richly painted frame with figures of prophets and saints that is typical for Czech painting. Between windows stands an original sculpture of a favourite saint of Charles, Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The sculpture belongs to the so called “beautiful style” (around 1400).

DEANERY (RESIDENCE OF CANONS OF KARLŠTEJN CHAPTER HOUSE)

There are two rooms in the smaller northern extension of Imperial palace and next to Charles’s private rooms, which during Charles’s reign used to be used by castle’s guard. In the 16th and 17th century this place served as a chapter house, hence also the furnishing of the interior with a richly carved cabinet from the 17th century. A collection of portraits depicting humanistic scholars and philosophers hangs above the cabinet. The big crucifix originates from around 1420. You can also see fragments of favourite board games, such as unique playing cards and a chessboard, which are displayed in a display case and come from the 14th to 16th century. An example of hygiene medieval facilities is the so called prevet (toilet).

Marian Tower

TREASURY

The first floor of the tower had various purposes in the past. It used to be used by the castle’s vassals, Karlštejn’s chapter and later also as a store. The Marian Tower originally served as Charles’s private treasury. It was therefore decided to use it for Karlštejn’s collections which, because of their nature and historic origin, belong to castle’s treasury. The most important item is the unique collection of clerical vestments from 15th – 16th century. Interesting are also parts of the gothic chainmail and plate armour, allegedly belonging to St Wenceslas himself. They are an example of the original collection of relics, as is the head of a crocodile that was considered to be a head of the dragon killed by Saint George. Other examples of unique exhibits are an ancient gemstone, documented to be at the castle already in the times of Charles IV, a little gothic bell on legs, which is mentioned by the oldest castle’s inventories, and gothic metal or precious enamel candleholders.

The castle’s treasure comprises of items made of precious metal between 14th and 19th century which are of a high craftsmanship standard. Walls are decorated with original mural paintings of flying angels with musical instruments that are part of angelic choir. A model of the Great Tower shows the location of the Chapel of the Holy Rood.

JEWELS HOUSE

This room contains items which in the past belonged to the most valued part of the castle, the Chapel of the Holy Rood. Copies of desk paintings from the Magister Theodoricus’s studio are deposited in the room together with copies of so called incrustations (overlay of the Chapel of the Holy Rood’s walls decorated with gemstones). Two inlaid cabinets used to contain written documents of Czech archives, which are the most important state documents, and copies of the land registry of nobility and free towns.

There is also one of the original gothic chapel chests. The fact that the castle was supposed to serve as a deposit for Czech coronation jewels is reminded of by the replica of Czech Crown of Saint Wenceslaus which was made for Charles’s coronation in 1347. The crown was symbolically deposited on the head of the Czech king, Saint Wenceslaus. It is the magnum opus of Prague’s goldsmiths and it was made of extremely pure gold and decorated with precious stones (ruby, spinels, emeralds, sapphires) and pearls. From 1436 to 1619 the crown was deposited in Karlštejn, currently it is located in the chamber next to the St Wenceslas Chapel in Prague castle’s St Vitus Cathedral.

Former Castle Prison– It is located on the ground floor of Marian Tower which can be entered through stairs from the sight-seeing tour. The room used to serve as a prison which is documented by graffito written by prisoners on original, mostly renaissance plasterwork. The entrance room contains the oldest preserved beamed ceiling from the end of the 15^th

century. The place currently serves as a small exhibition room and shop where wide variety of publications, postcards and replicas of historic and artistic items can be purchased.

Clock Tower

The tower belonging to the second castle’s gate contains a complicated renaissance clock from the times of Rudolph II. It is situated on the upper floor and can be reached from the castle’s gallery. Part of the mechanism is a cimbalom bell that the burgrave Vilém Slavata of Chlum and Košumberk ordered to be cast in 1609. Wooden stairs lead to the ground floor of the tower, where there hangs a big bell, called the Bell of St Catherine. It was made previously during the reign of Charles IV and re-melted again at the beginning of the 17^th century. It was originally situated in the castle’s belfry that is in the south-west watchtower of the Great Tower’s fortification. During renovation works in the end of the 19^th

century the bell was moved to the Clock Tower. The Bell of St Catherine can still be heard on auspicious occasions.

Well Tower

The Well Tower can be reached through the stairs from the main courtyard. In the past a bakery and a laundry used to be situated in the bottom part of the well area. The Well Tower can be entered from the courtyard and it holds a unique pumping mechanism that has a form of a tread wheel which used to be powered by people walking inside it. The 70 litre water bucket was lowered and pulled up by spinning the wheel; the whole process took 10 minutes. The well has the shape of a narrowing rectangle and it is almost 80 metres deep. The well didn’t have its own spring and was therefore filled up by water that travelled through a tunnel from a stream that flows at the western side of the castle. So, in fact it wasn’t a well but a cistern – a big underground reservoir of drinking water. When in 1911 the castle was equipped with water pipes, the well stopped being used. In spite of that, the level of water in the well still reaches about 12 metres. .

We deal with the most valuable place of the castle, the Chapel of the Holy Rood, in a separate article.

Source: Castles and Chateaux etc

František Sládek.