Hrad Kost

Kost is widely regarded as Bohemia's best-preserved Gothic castle, and it looks the part: a fortress of pale stone rising straight out of a sandstone spit between two brooks, with no hilltop needed. The donjon, known as the Bila vez or white tower, has a trapezoidal ground plan with corners angled to deflect catapult stones, a design unique among Czech castles. Beneš of Vartemberk began building here before 1349, and his sons Petr and Marquard finished it in high Gothic style within a few decades. Kost passed through the Zajíc, Šelmberk, Biberstein, and Lobkowicz families over the following two centuries, each adding fortifications and later palace wings. It survived the communist era as a working museum after being confiscated from the family in 1948, and after 1989 it returned to the Kinský dal Borgo family through restitution. A major reconstruction between 2019 and 2022, the largest in its modern history, restored much of what visitors walk through today.