Kost Castle

Castle Kost is located in the Czech Paradise in the cadastral territory of Podkost, which forms part of the village Libošovice in the district of Jičín Králové Hradec Region. As a cultural monument, it is protected by the state and belongs to significant structures of its type in the region.

The original castle was founded here in the middle of the 14th century. The older fortress, which was originally here, was deliberately demolished, and a new building was created in the second half of the same century. At its inception, the castle took the form of a gradual addition and expansion over generations. The first documented owner was the end of the first half of the 14th century Beneš III. z Vartenberka. His descendants were Kost until the beginning of the 15th century when Zajícové z Hazmburka acquired it. For this family it became an important home until 1497.

During the first half of the sixteenth century the castle was owned by páni ze Šelmberka and from Biberstejn, who significantly rebuilt it and extended its residential spaces. The Biberstejns added another living wing between the second and third gates. The owners later included Lobkovicové, under which the castle gradually loses the character of the superstructure and begins to decay. In 1637 it was bought by Černínové z Chudenic, who held it for about a hundred years when they performed only the necessary maintenance for the economic operation and management of the estate. Since 1738, the castle belonged to the Netholite of Eisenberg, which was later inherited by the family of Kinské dal Borgo, the Italian line of the hairy branch of the originally Czech count of Kinski.

The architecture of the castle is dominated by a large residential tower, which is supplemented by an opposite palace with a round tower in the corner and a second smaller residential tower on the севer. This composition was obtained by the castle core gradually during two construction phases. Lobkovicové still had economic buildings built in a substation, which was the last major building intervention in the form of a fortress.

In 1945 the castle was nationalized, but after the Velvet Revolution, the descendants of Kinski took it back. Today, Kost is associated with the list of protected cultural monuments and represents one of the characteristic buildings of the Czech Paradise, where its Gothic architecture reminds of a rich period when alternating nobility formed his face and fates.