Hluboká Castle (german: Schloss Frauenberg) is a historic

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Now ...

situated in

Hluboká nad Vltavou Hluboká nad Vltavou (; until 1885 ''Podhrad'', german: Frauenberg) is a town in České Budějovice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,400 inhabitants. The town is known for the Hluboká Castle. Administr ...

. It is considered one of the most beautiful castles in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Tourism

Hluboká is one of the most famous and most frequently visited castles in the country. As of 2019, it was the 3rd most visited castle with 293,000 visitors.

History

In the second half of the 13th century, a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

castle was built at the site. During its history, the castle was rebuilt several times. It was first expanded during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

period, then rebuilt into a Baroque castle at the order of

Adam Franz von Schwarzenberg Adam Franz Prince of Schwarzenberg (25 September 1680, Linz – 11 June 1732, near Brandeis on the Elbe), 3rd Prince of Schwarzenberg, was a Bohemian nobleman from the Schwarzenberg family and Austrian Obersthofmarschall. Biograph ...

in the beginning of the 18th century. It reached its current appearance during the 19th century, when Johann Adolf II von Schwarzenberg ordered the reconstruction of the castle in the romantic style of England's

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. The Schwarzenbergs obtained the castle in 1661 when Johann Adolf, Prince of Schwarzenberg bought it from the heirs of Baltasar Marradas. They lived in Hluboká until the end of 1939, when the last owner ( Adolph Schwarzenberg) emigrated overseas to escape from the Nazis. The Schwarzenbergs lost all of their Czech property through a special legislative Act, the ''Lex Schwarzenberg'', in 1947. Hluboká Castle is a National Cultural Monument of the Czech Republic.

Additional information

The original royal castle of Ottokar II from the second half of the 13th century was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century by the Lords of Hradec. It received its present appearance under Count Jan Adam of Schwarzenberg. According to the English

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

example, architects Franz Beer and F. Deworetzky built a Romantic

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

château, surrounded by a English park here in the years 1841 to 1871. In 1940, the castle was seized from the last owner, Adolph Schwarzenberg by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and confiscated by the government of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The castle is opened to the public. There is a winter garden and riding-hall where the Southern Bohemian gallery exhibitions have been housed since 1956.

In popular culture

The castle has been used in a scene of the movie ''

Shanghai Knights ''Shanghai Knights'' is a 2003 American martial arts action comedy film. It is the sequel to ''Shanghai Noon'', and the second installment of the ''Shanghai'' film series. Directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, i ...

''. The castle has also been used as a location for the Eastern Coven in the movie '' Underworld: Blood Wars''. In 2019, K-pop soloist Park Jihoon released his song L.O.V.E. and the music video was filmed in the castle.

References

External links

Official website
(in English)
Official website
(in Czech)
Town of Hluboká nad Vltavou
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hluboka Castle České Budějovice District Castles in the South Bohemian Region Museums in the South Bohemian Region Historic house museums in the Czech Republic National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic