Rozmberk Castle

Rozmberk was built in the early thirteenth century by Vok of Prcice on a spur above a tight bend of the upper Vltava, and the family took its name and its five-petalled rose emblem from it, going on to become the most powerful house in southern Bohemia. The complex has two parts: the upper castle, of which the round Jakobinka tower survives, and the lower castle, rebuilt in Renaissance and again in the nineteenth century by the Buquoy family in a romantic English manner, which is what visitors go through. The rooms hold the Buquoy collections, arms, and a portrait of Perchta of Rozmberk - the White Lady of Czech legend, said to appear at family houses to foretell births and deaths, wearing white gloves for good news and black for bad. It is the country's most persistent ghost story. Canoeists on the upper Vltava pass directly below.

History

Rožmberk was founded in the first half of the 13th century by Vítek the Younger of Prčice or by his son Vok of Prčice, a member of the powerful Vítkovci family, who then styled himself Vok of Rožmberk after the castle; it is first mentioned in 1253. The original Upper Castle consisted of the Jakobínka, a tower 9.6 metres in diameter, with ramparts and a palace inside walls and a moat, and a small town soon grew up in its barbican; the castle became the centre of the family's lands, part of which Vok gave to the new Cistercian monastery at Vyšší Brod. In 1302, when the Krumlov branch of the Vítkovci died out, Vok's descendants inherited Český Krumlov and moved there, and after 1330 Jindřich of Rožmberk built the Lower Castle, defended by ramparts above a moat cut through the neck of the rock. Oldřich II of Rožmberk pawned the castle in 1420 and it was pawned again in 1465, both loans being repaid; the Upper Castle burned in 1522 and was never rebuilt. In 1600 Petr Vok of Rožmberk left the castle to his nephew Johann Zrinski, who rebuilt the Lower Castle in Renaissance style; after the Battle of White Mountain Ferdinand II gave it to Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy, and the Buquoys remodelled it in Romantic Neo-Gothic style in 1840-57 (Wikipedia, Rožmberk Castle).

What you'll find

• The Rosenberg name-seat - where the family and its rose emblem came from.
• The Jakobinka tower - the round survivor of the upper castle.
• Romantic nineteenth-century rooms - the Buquoy remodelling and collections.
• Perchta's portrait - the White Lady of the best-known Czech ghost legend.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

What to expect

Guided tours only, seasonal, closed in winter. The village is small with limited parking. The canoe route below is busy in July and August. Several routes and tickets to choose between.

Nearby

Vyssi Brod monastery is upstream; Cesky Krumlov is downstream.

Key facts