Cesky Sternberk Castle

Zdeslav of Divisov built a castle on a narrow rock ridge above the Sazava around 1241 and took his name from it - Sternberg, the star mountain, with a star in the arms - and his descendants have held it ever since, apart from the years between nationalisation in 1949 and restitution in 1992, when the last owner Jiri Sternberg stayed on as the castle's custodian and guide under the state. That continuity of nearly eight hundred years in one family is unusual anywhere in Europe. The building is Gothic in structure, remodelled in early baroque in the 1660s with stucco ceilings by Carlo Brentano, and the rooms hold family portraits, arms and a collection of some five hundred copperplate engravings of the Thirty Years War. It is lived in by the family, which is visible in the way the rooms are kept. The setting on the ridge above the river is the other reason to come.

History

The castle was built in 1241 by the nobleman Zdeslav of Divišov, later called Zdeslav of Sternberg, and has been owned by his family for most of the time since. When firearms began to threaten it in the 14th century, a three-storey tower joined to the castle by a rampart was added on the north. In 1467 the royal troops of George of Poděbrady seized it; the Sternbergs recovered the damaged castle and at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries rebuilt and strengthened it, with a new round tower on the south. It came through the looting of 1627, during the Thirty Years' War. When the Holický branch of the family died out with Count Jan Václav in 1712 it passed to other owners, who built the lower palace in 1751, but in 1841 Zdeněk of Sternberg, of the Konopiště branch, bought it back. Taken over by the state in 1949, the castle was kept open with Jiří Sternberg staying on as its steward and guide; in 1992 it was returned to his son Zdeněk, and since Zdeněk's death in 2021 it has been run by his son Filip (Wikipedia, Český Šternberk Castle).

What to look for

• One family since 1241 - held continuously apart from the Communist decades.
• Baroque stucco over Gothic - Brentano's 1660s ceilings in the state rooms.
• Thirty Years War engravings - about five hundred copperplates in the collection.
• A rock ridge over the Sazava - the setting that made the site.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

Guided tours only, on set times, and seasonal - closed for much of winter. Parts remain the family's private home. The village below is tiny with limited parking.

Nearby

Sazava monastery is downstream; Konopiste is west.

Key facts