Czech Republic Guide
Central Bohemia
Karlštejn hrad
The Karlštejn hrad (Tues– Sun: March 9am– noon & 1–3pm; April & Oct 9am– noon & 1–4pm; May, June & Sept 9am–5pm; July & Aug 9am–6pm; 
311 681 617, 
www.hradkarlstejn.cz ) occupies a spectacular, defiantly unassailable position above the eponymous village. Designed in the fourteenth century by Matthias of Arras for Emperor Charles IV as a giant safe-box for the imperial crown jewels and his large personal collection of precious relics, it quickly became Charles' favourite retreat from the vast city he himself had masterminded. Women were strictly forbidden to enter the castle, and the story of his third wife Anna's successful break-in (in drag) became one of the most popular Czech comedies of the nineteenth century.
Ruthlessly restored in the late nineteenth century, the castle now looks far better from a distance, with its giant wedge towers rising above a series of castellated walls. Most of the rooms on the hour-long Tour 1 (trasa I) contain only the barest of furnishings, the empty spaces taken up by uninspiring displays on the castle's history (120Kč, 220Kč for a guided tour in English). Far more interesting is Tour 2 (trasa II), which takes longer (June– Oct only; 1hr 20min; 300Kč), must be booked in advance, and is restricted to fifteen visitors at a time. This allows you to enter the Emperor's chambers in the Mariánská věž, where Charles shut himself off from the rest of the world, with any urgent business passed to him through a hole in the wall of the tiny ornate chapel of sv Kateřina. The castle's finest treasure is the Chapel of sv Kříž, connected by a wooden bridge that leads onto the highest point of the castle, the Velká věž. In the Emperor's day, only a select few could enter this gilded treasure-house, whose six-metre-thick walls contain 2200 semi-precious stones and 128 beautiful fourteenth-century panels painted by the masterful Master Theodoric.
Trains for Karlštejn leave Prague's Smíchovské nádraží roughly every hour, and take about 35 minutes to cover the 28km. The village is ten-minutes' walk across the river from the station, and it's a further fifteen- to twenty-minute climb up to the castle entrance.