Zvikov Castle

Zvikov stands on the spur where the Otava joins the Vltava and it is usually called the king of Czech castles - it was the principal royal castle of the Premyslid kings in the thirteenth century, kept the crown jewels for a period, and its architecture is the earliest fully Gothic secular work in Bohemia. The core is a rectangular palace around a courtyard with two storeys of arcades on slender columns, an unusually refined arrangement for the 1230s and 1240s, and a chapel with wall paintings of the fifteenth century. The Hlizova tower, older and square, stands at one corner. The reservoirs changed the setting here too - the Orlik dam raised the water at the foot of the rock - but the castle itself sits high enough to keep its position. There is a legend of the Zvikov imp, a creature said to appear in the tower, which is the local ghost story.

History

The promontory above the confluence of the Vltava and Otava was inhabited in prehistoric times, when the Celts built a fort here in the 1st century AD. The present castle was built in the first half of the 13th century, most probably on the orders of King Ottokar I, and is first mentioned in 1234 as a property of the kings of Bohemia; it was extended until 1278. After the Přemyslid dynasty died out in 1306 it passed to the Rosenbergs, the settlement below was fortified after 1337, and the Hussites besieged it for four months in 1429 without taking it. Charles IV put it on a list of royal castles never to be pawned, but his successors ignored the decree. At the start of the Thirty Years' War a garrison of 140 men held it against 4,000 Habsburg troops in 1618 and capitulated only in October 1622, after which it was looted, and in the 1640s the Schwambergs extended the palace in Renaissance style. It later served only as a farm and granary, a fire in 1751 damaged much of the palace, the chapel was deconsecrated in 1780, the palace facade collapsed in 1829, and the Schwarzenbergs restored it between 1880 and 1902. The Orlík Dam, built in 1954-1962, flooded the settlement below and made the castle easy to reach, and the palace was restored again in 1970-1980 (Wikipedia, Zvíkov Castle).

What you'll find

• Two storeys of arcades - early Gothic courtyard work of the 1230s and 1240s.
• A river confluence - the Otava joining the Vltava below the spur.
• Fifteenth-century wall paintings - in the castle chapel.
• The Hlizova tower - the older square keep at the corner.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

Seasonal opening, closed in winter, and parts are shown only on a guided route. The approach road is narrow. Boat services from Orlik run to a seasonal timetable and depend on water level.

Nearby

Orlik is downstream; Pisek and its medieval stone bridge are south.

Key facts