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Tour of the castle grounds
Castle architecture
A tour of the castle grounds offers an opportunity to admire early castle architecture, one of the most remarkable examples in the lands of the Bohemian Crown.
At the time when the castle was the property of the Landštejn family, it fulfilled mostly a defensive and military purpose, shown by the starkly functional nature of the architecture. The heart of the castle was the large square tower (Bergfrit) on the southern side, while the northern side held a smaller inhabitable tower with a chapel. Both towers were connected by a two-storeyed palace. The monumental castle walls connecting both towers marked off a five-sided castle complex with a courtyard, accessible by a Romanesque gate at the foot of the Bergfrit. The more decorative architecture was saved for the castle chapel of St. George, consecrated in 1495.
The chapel ceiling displays a semicircular vault. The western side holds a viewing area where the owner could overlook the holy mass. The remnants of the frescoes give evidence to the exceptional nature attributed to this place.
Despite its simplistic building style (the castle is built of rubble stone except the corner of the towers, built of hewn blocks), the monumental character of the castle had no equivalent in the Bohemian lands at the time. The castle would have been able to withstand a long siege of a fair-sized garrison.
The arrival of the House of Krajíř meant a new period of development for Landštejn, politically and architecturally. The stark coldness of the Gothic age gradually made way for the much more comfortable and livable Renaissance, and demands for more luxurious living necessitated a fundamental reconstruction of the castle. The Krajíř family undertook this task so generously, that today's researchers are left with a number of questions.
The castle was transformed into a fastidious and demonstrative residence, placing it among the foremost of Bohemian feudal castles in the early 16th century. The ambitious reconstruction began in the late 15th century by building a residential defense tower outside the southern walls. This closed the original entrance into the castle and a new gate was broken into the eastern side of the courtyard (still used today). The modernisation continued by adding a storey to both towers and the palace between them, while a new residential wing with a new chapel was built in front of the original Romanesque palace. Later the courtyard was topped off with a large wing of the Renaissance palace, the original castle walls forming the outer side. The modern reconstruction also required breaking through the castle walls to allow for single-, double-, and triple-fold Renaissance windows.
This practical liquidation of the original castle walls necessitated the construction of a new fortification system. This significantly expanded the entire castle complex, and a new system of extensive moats and walls with bastions was implemented.
The grandiose architectural projects of this and other castles strained the Krajíř family's finances to such a degree that in 1579 they were forced to sell the castle. Since then, Landštejn castle passed through several owners, dilapidated, and finally was struck by lightning in 1771, which burned most of the castle down and marked the definitive end of its development. The debts of the castle's owner forbade its renewal, and the castle slowly became a ruin.
The 1970's brought a wave of conservational and reconstruction work at the castle, including archeological research. Such research has brought us much information on the castle's past, such as several archelogical finds as well as discoveries of previously unknown constructional phases.
