BEZDĚZ CASTLE

The royal castle of Bezděz was founded in 1264 by Přemysl Otakar II, the Iron and Golden King, to manage and protect his extensive royal estates. The castle went down in Czech history as the place where the future King Wenceslas II was imprisoned as a child, together with his mother Kunhuta.

From 1627 the castle was owned by Albrecht von Wallenstein, who invited the monks of the Order of St. Augustine to Bezděz, although they did not stay there for long. The castle became a monastery only later, in 1666, when Benedictine monks brought a copy of the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat. A number of buildings were altered as living quarters for the monks, and Countess Anna von Wallenstein had 15 stations of the cross chapels built along the access road in 1686. In the early 19th century, the castle began to fall into disrepair and gradually became a ruin. Bezděz is linked to the work of the romantic poet K. H. Mácha, who loved this region and found inspiration here for works such as Evening at Bezděz and May.

The castle is one of the few to have been preserved in its original, pure form. It was never rebuilt as a romantic summer residence or demolished like other equally famous castles. This is one reason why the rare Early Gothic castle chapel is still in place.

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