Cesky Krumlov Castle – Ghost Stories, Bears, Unique Architecture
13 August, 2009One of the key attraction in Český Krumlov is its Castle. This castle is the second largest in Czech Republic after the Hradčany castle complex of Prague. This is quite unusual considering the size of Krumlov town. It was said that in order to enhance their status in the Czech royal court, the royalty in Cesky Krumlov had built its own castle to closely emulate the Prague castle e.g. Castle Steps and Church of Saint Vitus.
The walls in the castle ground looked as if they were wallpapered – with brick-like designs. However, they are not – the designs were carved into the wall using a Renaissance era architecture technique – sgraffito (which I will elaborate more on in a later post about our night tour of Cesky Krumlov).
The Český Krumlov castle complex is the main tourist attraction in town. There are many ways to explore the castle. Walking about the castle complex admiring the unique architecture (see above picture) and having a picnic at the Castle Gardens is free. The interior of the castle is only accessible via a 55-minute guided tour and Tour I (there are 2 tours) comes highly recommended by various travel forums.
One thing to note is that the Castle interiors are closed on Mondays – so plan your trip to take this into account.
No photography is allowed in the castle interior. Our guide had a very strong accent that was quite difficult to understand. The best thing about this tour was the stunning soprano performance that the guide gave in the last part of the tour, to demonstrate the acoustics of the ballroom.
As with most places with long histories, they are bound to be ghost stories in Cesky Krumlov castle. One of the most famous one shared by the guide was the story of White Lady von Rosenberg.
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Perchta von Rosenberg, known as the White Lady, lived in the Český Krumlov castle in the 15th century. She was married as part of a matchmaking arrangement, to the Moravian lord Johann von Lichtenstein who treated her badly throughout their marriage life. When Johann was dying, he tried to ask her for forgiveness for what he had done throughout the years. However, she refused and was thus cursed by her husband to roam the Cesky Krumlov castles forever.
Since then, the soul of the White Lady von Rosenberg roamed this castle ground and tends to appear before significant events. White gloves on her hand bear good tidings, whereas black gloves are a sign of impending disaster.
One other attraction of the Krumlov Castle is the Bear Moat, where the famous Krumlov bears walk about lazily. Bears had been kept in the castle since the 16th century as they are the symbol of the Rosenbergs family who ruled Cesky Krumlov back then.
Comments (13)
Jessen
13 August, 2009 at 12:29 pmWell, 🙂 the bears are cute.
Shopping in Cesky Krumlov – 15 Million Year Old Gemstone, Wooden Toys and Bears
14 August, 2009 at 9:12 am[…] town symbol – Smok Wawelski Dragon. Here in Cesky Krumlov, there are also souvenirs of the Krumlov Bears from the castle. Check out the aggressive bear at the shopfront.. […]
elmer misael espinoza
15 February, 2010 at 4:51 amit’s city beatiful..
erwin@Home Design Inspiration
17 July, 2010 at 3:34 amso beautiful..
nikki
5 February, 2011 at 10:44 pmIs the bus station far from town center ? Got big luggage!
Zhiqiang & Tingyi
6 February, 2011 at 10:09 amyes – it is quite far from the town center. and since no cars are allowed in the town center, a bit of walking is still needed.
Conspiracy girl
2 March, 2011 at 5:59 pmhi,
these bears were so sweet and charming…
Do these bears have small children???
I was just surprised
Zhiqiang & Tingyi
2 March, 2011 at 10:25 pmdont see any small bears around 🙂
Nawee
23 April, 2011 at 11:51 amI’m going to Czech next week.
Did you have to book or buy the tickets for the tours in advance? I have read in some forums that they could not get the tours in English.
Thanks,
Nawee
PS I love your website. It helped me a lot with the planning of my own trip. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Zhiqiang & Tingyi
23 April, 2011 at 1:36 pmexcept for Karlstejn castle (see another post at this blog), you dont have to buy any tickets in advance. hope this helps.
Lianne Thornton
20 October, 2011 at 6:56 amLooks really interesting and exciting. One day, ….. when I get there, I’d love to visit and enjoy.
Lilliana
25 November, 2012 at 7:03 amThis has been a good read. I was not aware of many of the facts
presented in the article. I have subscribed to your blog site.
Looking forward to reading more articles from you.
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