The old town of the former Český Krumlov, the »Pearl of the Bohemian Forest«, is an example of a small medieval town with monuments from more than five centuries. The town hall, which was created from the connection of two late Gothic houses, the Gothic church of Sankt Veit and the baroque palace garden are among the numerous architectural gems. Visit harvardshoes.com for Czech Republic as a destination country.

Old town Cesky Krumlov: facts

Old town Cesky Krumlov: history

Under the sign of the rose

Český Krumlov, that South Bohemian town planning gem, is most beautiful in the evening, when the tourist flows have dried up. Then a young woman in a beautiful robe walks with the remaining visitors through narrow nocturnal alleys and reports on the banks of the gently flowing Vltava from gruesome hours in the city’s history: from the illegitimate son of the emperor Don Julius de Austria, called the “bastard”, who, because of his mental illness kept in secret by the castle, dismembered the daughter of the local barber. It tells of the alchemist Anton Michael von Ebersbach, whose “rejuvenating drink” brought the lord of the castle Wilhelm von Rosenberg to death and his maker an end of life in prison. And she knows about the “white woman” so popular in the Czech Republic, who still haunts the castles of South Bohemia, and about the bears,

The “Iron Curtain” has prevented the majority of two generations from discovering the beauties of the city on the Vltava. After all, UNESCO placed Český Krumlov in second place among the European cities worth preserving, just behind Venice. Today, after its restoration, Český Krumlov is a popular excursion destination. Over a million tourists visit the city every year, and the number is rising.

The mighty castle from the Gothic period, “modernized” and expanded as a palace in the style of Renaissance and Baroque, is only one of 300 objects that are listed in the city. There is hardly any other place in the former Czechoslovakia where a medieval city and castle complex has been preserved so completely and so extensively as in the South Bohemian city, which has occasionally been compared with Siena in Italy or Stirling in Scotland. Under the castle complex, on the ridge almost a town in itself, the narrow houses of the former castle servants lean against the slope, the former brewery and the former monastery rise above the river. The actual old town, however, is located in the Vltava loop on the other bank and offers everything that defines a medieval cityscape: narrow alleys, passages, stairs and corners that surprisingly lead to small, cozy squares with fountains and statues; In addition, all sorts of civic pride turned into stone: buildings with gables and bay windows, arbors and corridors, with magnificent and lively frescoes and the sgraffiti created with attention to detail as house decorations. Even those who spend several days in Český Krumlov will always discover new beauties, especially inside the building: vaults and balconies, halls and chapels, staircases and niches, coats of arms and house signs – a stone history book.

The residence blossomed under the sign of the rose, that five-petalled red forest rose on a silver background that the Lords of Rosenberg had in their coat of arms. The Rosenbergs acquired their position of power in the religious turmoil of the Middle Ages, when they defended – and subsequently retained – Catholic property against the church reform and national movement of the Hussites. Mining, pond farming, breweries, glassworks and sheep breeding belonged to their economic empire from the beginning of the 14th to the 17th century, which enabled them to make Český Krumlov so splendid as a ruler’s seat.

The Schwarzenbergs were just as wealthy as their predecessors. The fact that they stood up against the Nazis was not worth it after the end of the war: Their possessions were nationalized, including the Český Krumlov Castle.