Chateau Zbiroh

This romantic castle is situated above the town of the same name. According to legend, the castle was founded by Zbyněk Zajíc of Valdek, who got lost with his companions during a hunt. After the sun set, they climbed to the top of the nearest hill to search the vicinity for a place to pass the night. Seeing no settlements nearby, they made camp where they were and went to sleep. In the morning, much to their surprise, they found antlers lying all around them. The nobleman had his men collect the antlers and decided to build a castle at this advantageous place. Today there is a Neo-Renaissance mansion on the former site of the early Gothic castle. The completely renovated mansion has been open to the public since June 2005. Situated on the border of the Krivoklat region and the Brdské woods, Zbiroh was the birthplace of Josef Vaclav Sládek and a favourite place of Fraňa Šrámek, Alfons Mucha and Adolf Branadl.

The Chateau of Forgotten Mysteries

The great ear of the SS, The famous site was illuminated by the genius of Alfons Mucha. More than 80% of his oil paintings originated here, including his entire Slavic Epic. The famous Czech writer Fríňa Šrámek also wrote his Stříbrný vítr (Silver Wind) here. Huge silic rocks veined with semi-precious jasper on which is Zbiroh Castle built on. The German Nazis discovered after the wars that jasper perfectly reflects radio waves, explains Jaroslav Pácha. That is why the SS forces evicted the Colloredo-Mansfield’s and set up their secret headquarters for monitoring radio traffic. Their instruments spied on the whole world from here!, Afterwards the Communist Czechoslovak Army continued to use the unique attributes of jasper “amplifiers”. They stationed the large Tamara radio-locator here and tracked the movements of the “invisible” American Stealth aircraft for the armies of the Warsaw Pact.