Hluboká nad Vltavou Castle: The Most Beautiful Castle in the Czech Republic

There are castles you visit, and there are castles that stop you in your tracks. Hluboká nad Vltavou is the second kind. The gleaming white Neo-Gothic towers rising above the Vltava River, the manicured English park spreading around it, the sheer scale of the thing against the South Bohemian sky — it is one of the most striking images in the Czech Republic, and no photograph quite prepares you for it.

A private Hluboká Castle day trip from Prague takes you to the third most visited castle in the country — and the one that most visitors say is the most beautiful. Just 140 kilometres from Prague, it makes for one of the finest full days in South Bohemia.

A castle rebuilt to rival Windsor

The story of Hluboká begins in the second half of the 13th century, when Czech king Přemysl Otakar II built a Gothic guard fortress on the hill above the Vltava River. Over the following centuries the castle passed through the hands of several Bohemian noble families — the Pernštejns, the Lords of Hradec, who rebuilt it into a Renaissance château in 1562 — before the Schwarzenberg family purchased it in 1661.

The Schwarzenbergs transformed Hluboká twice. First into a Baroque residence in the early 18th century. Then, between 1841 and 1871, into something entirely different. Johann Adolf II of Schwarzenberg, inspired by visits to England with his wife Eleonora of Liechtenstein, commissioned a complete reconstruction in the Romantic Neo-Gothic style of Windsor Castle. Architects Franz Beer and F. Deworetzky spent three decades on the project. The result — 140 rooms, 11 towers, a 1.9-square-kilometre English park — is what you see today.

The Schwarzenbergs lived at Hluboká until the end of 1939, when the last owner, Adolph Schwarzenberg, fled occupied Czechoslovakia — first to Italy, then to the United States — to escape the Nazi regime. He was known as a passionate anti-Nazi who had refused to receive Hitler at his castles. On 17 August 1940 the Gestapo confiscated all his property. After the war, despite the family's exemplary conduct, Czechoslovakia passed a special law confiscating the estates permanently. The castle has been open to the public ever since.

What you will see inside

The castle interiors are among the finest in Central Europe. Lavishly decorated ceremonial halls with carved wooden panelling, coffered ceilings and crystal chandeliers. The private apartments of the last Schwarzenberg owners — intimate rooms that reveal the daily life of one of Bohemia's most powerful dynasties. A collection of 57 Flemish tapestries, the largest in Bohemia, some dating to the 17th century. Hunting rooms, a historic kitchen preserved from the turn of the 20th century, and throughout — portraits, silverware, porcelain and the accumulated treasures of three centuries of aristocratic life.

Tickets to the castle interiors are optional and purchased on site. Castle interiors are open year-round, Tuesday through Sunday. The castle grounds and English park are free and accessible every day.

Hluboká and Český Krumlov — the perfect South Bohemia day