More than being another footnote to the fairy tale narratives woven around the Czech capital, the story of Karlstejn Castle is intimately intertwined with the story of the man who ordered its construction, and whose life has since become a hagiography of the Czech nation.
Below: Possibly the best view of Karlstejn Castle in the rolling Czech countryside all around.
This year, Prague celebrates the 700th birthday of King Charles IV, who is widely recognised in the country as one of three Fathers of the Czechs. Charles of Luxembourg was both King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor in the fourteenth century. Deemed by many historians to be the man behind Prague's Golden Age, Charles aspired for Prague what Constantine once achieved for Byzantium - to become a new Rome. Prague became a personal project of piety writ large, adorned as it was with a slew of new churches and cathedrals and trebling its size.
Charles relied on his burgeoning collection of holy relics to build up the sanctity of his imperial capital. A new crown, bedecked with precious stones, was commissioned for the kingdom of Bohemia, to reflect the prestige that now accrued to its king who was recognised also as the foremost monarch in Western Christendom. A castle was constructed some 30 kilometres southwest of Prague both to function as Charles' private residence and to store these treasures, and thus was Karlstejn Castle born.
Above: A map of the Karlstejn vicinity. The train station (unlabeled) is southwest, across the Berounka River, of the village. We took the yellow path that led from the station northeast to the castle, following it as it turned right just beneath the castle walls. The picture above was taken in the oblong beige space which the yellow path dissects, as it continues southeast.
Below: It's quite impossible to miss the castle once in the village, the latter neither the first nor last in this corner of the world to be dominated by the former.
It's a wonderful story. Only, Charles was only half-Czech. It is well known that Charles hailed on his father's side from a dynasty with roots in the Low Countries far to the northwest. What is not so well known is how the castle walls which were to house some of Christianity's holiest treasures were raised by labourers brought in from Palestine.
Karlstejn Castle sits snugly within the wooded valley of the Berounka River. For a storehouse, the keep's location could not have been more cunningly chosen. The castle, despite commanding a hilltop location, was screened by the surrounding hills so that those approaching could not see it until the very final approach.
Above: The castle's location was cunningly chosen, screened as it is by surrounding hills and visible only at the final approach (uphill) to its gates. Passing by on the train, we were afforded only a second's glimpse before the castle was swallowed up again by the hills.
Below: The river Berounka, which empties into the Vltava, on a windless winter's day.
It was midweek and midwinter when we visited, and not for the first time we relished the thought of having the entire castle to ourselves. But walking into Karlstejn village just beneath the castle it seemed instead that we had wandered into a different sort of tale - more post-apocalyptic than pastoral. The silence on the close to lifeless streets was broken only by the odd passing resident, each of whom looked very surprised to find two very non-European visitors wandering about their village.
Below: The only footsteps echoing on the streets that day.
The only shop open in town was Doma Cafe. The co-owner was Karolina, an amiable young lady who hailed from the mountainous Czech-Slovak-Polish tri-border region and with whom we had a lively exchange over tea and cake (by this time we had developed a fondness for Bohemian honeycakes). We learnt that her family had connections as cosmopolitan as the castle. Having witnessed her two sisters marry respectively an Algerian and a Jamaican, Karolina has been on the receiving end of endless jokes for marrying locally. Her fiance is actually Polish.
From Doma Cafe we turned left and followed the only road through the village northwards towards the castle. This passed rows of houses built right under the shadow of the castle. Where the slope steepened and the road started to meander, we turned right into a small path that led into the forest. This climbed gently along a little gully before emerging in a meadow between two hills. Serious walkers, most of them Czech, would continue beyond the meadow to better explore the rolling Bohemian karst landscape.
Below: Wandering off the main village road and into the surrounding woods to get better views (see first picture).
But the furthest we got was the closest bench (a distant 200 metres into the meadow), from where we enjoyed agreeable views of Karlstejn Castle towering like a dreadnought above a sea of green. It was the view we came for, which helped a great deal to mitigate the earlier disappointment of walking into a virtual ghost town.
After all, we still had pretty much the entire village to ourselves.
Logistics
Visits to Karlstejn are usually undertaken as day trips from Prague. The village is served by frequent trains from the main station in Prague. Approaching from Prague, one can snatch glimpses of the castle on the train's right as it passes a gap in the hills. Once at Karlstejn, signs point the way to the castle. Opening hours vary, and depend on the time of year (visit https://www.hradkarlstejn.cz/en/plan-your-visit/opening-hours for more information). At the time of our visit near the end of January, the castle (and much of the town) hadn't yet reopened after the Christmas-New Year festive period.
Below: Karlstejn train station, look out for it because you might miss the castle on the way here.
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