Zbiroh Chateau

Zbiroh stands on an outcrop of red jasper, which is unusual enough that the rock is part of the story, and the castle on it is Romanesque in origin, rebuilt in Renaissance and again in the nineteenth century for the industrialist Bethel Henry Strousberg into a heavy neo-Renaissance house. Between 1911 and 1928 Alfons Mucha rented the great hall here to paint the Slav Epic - twenty canvases, several of them over six by eight metres, which needed a room of that height and which is why he worked in this building rather than a studio. In the courtyard is a well sunk through the jasper to about a hundred and sixty-three metres, one of the deepest castle wells in Europe. The castle was used by the Wehrmacht as a communications base and there are period installations. It is now privately run as a hotel with guided tours and a strong line in ghost and mystery marketing.

What to look for

• A jasper outcrop - the red rock the castle stands on.
• Mucha's painting hall - where the Slav Epic canvases were made, 1911-1928.
• A 163-metre well - sunk through the rock, one of Europe's deepest castle wells.
• A neo-Renaissance rebuild - the nineteenth-century industrialist's remodelling.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

What to expect

It is a private hotel and tours run to its schedule; the mystery and ghost angle is laid on thickly. The Slav Epic canvases are not here - they are in Moravsky Krumlov and Prague. Booking is advisable.

Nearby

Rokycany is west; Krivoklat forest is north.