Karlstein

Karlstein is the most prominent castle in Bohemia and probably one of the most famous castles in the entire Europe. However, if you carefully study its history, you will discover that Emperor and King Charles IV did not want any publicity around this edifice, as if he wished that the castle were invisible to people. He could not have chosen a worse place for it. From the surrounding hills, one could see right into his “bedchamber.” How he felt about the castle is obvious from the fact that he did not attend the laying of the foundation stone. Normally vocal chroniclers were very secretive about Karlstein. Even though the construction was very expensive, we hardly know anything about it, including why the castle was built. The rare information saying that Charles IV wanted to build a summer residence in the style of French kings — yet some walls are seven meters thick — is also not very credible. And thus, in the end we can be certain only of one thing — since the very beginning, the castle was designed for keeping the most valuable treasure, the imperial sacred insignia, the holder of which was historically the rightful ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. But due to unfortunate historical circumstances, the imperial coronation treasure remained in the castle only for several decades. On the other hand, the Czech coronation jewels that Charles IV did not plan to keep at Karlstein were moved to the castle and stayed there for several centuries, protected with many locks. Karlstein is a place of many secrets. To reveal some of them was the goal of this book.