




hrad Křivoklát
Castle · Czechia
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Riding into the Křivoklátsko forests, the castle appears suddenly on its rock spur above the Rakovník stream valley, a Gothic silhouette worth the climb up from the village. First mentioned around 1110, when Duke Vladislav I imprisoned his nephew here, it was rebuilt in stone around 1230 and became a favorite residence of the Přemyslid and Luxembourg kings, hosting an English royal embassy sent by Richard II in 1380. After Hussite-era fires, King Vladislav II had it remodeled by master builder Benedikt Rejt (architect of Prague Castle's Vladislav Hall) and Hans Spiess, giving it much of its present Gothic form. From the 16th century the Habsburgs turned it into a state prison, holding the alchemist Edward Kelley and the Bohemian bishop Jan Augusta, who spent sixteen years here. The Fürstenberg family restored the castle after an 1826 fire and built one of the era's largest private libraries before selling it to the new Czechoslovak state in 1929.
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From Wikipedia
Křivoklát Castle (Czech: hrad Křivoklát) is a castle in Křivoklát in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is protected as a national cultural monument.