Kotnov Castle

Kotnov, which is also called Hradiště, is a castle in Tábor that was later converted into a brewery. It is located on a promontory in the southwestern part of the city's historic center. The entire complex is a cultural monument and since nineteen sixty-two it has been a national cultural monument together with the Bechyňská Gate.

The castle was founded by King Přemysl Otakar the Second as a municipal castle. However, it stood outside the area of the city itself, which was named Hradiště. The first written mention of the castle dates from thirteen seventy. The city no longer existed at that time and the place belonged to the lords from Ústí. After Tábor was founded, the castle became part of its fortifications and in the nineteen thirties of the fifteenth century its fortifications were improved. A turning point came with a fire in fifteen thirty-two. After that, the castle began to serve the economic needs of the brewery and a number of castle buildings were gradually demolished.

The castle had a five-sided ground plan and was protected by at least four towers. From the round tower in the southeastern corner, only a small piece of masonry remains; the angular tower in the northwestern corner has been partially preserved. Residential buildings were replaced by new brewery buildings. On the eastern side there once stood a rectangular residential tower and a palace with three rooms. Along the rampart on the northwest stood a long building, part of which has survived. The castle core was surrounded on all sides by a barbican.

The best preserved and most distinctive structure is the round battery tower. It was built probably after fifteen thirty-two and on the ground floor and first floor they used the remains of an older tower. Two construction phases are evident in the masonry. First, a lower story was created with three loopholes that widen on both sides. Later, a higher section was added with loopholes through which smoke could escape.

A winding passage leading to the ground floor ends with a small Gothic-Renaissance portal. Under the modern wooden ceiling are remains of a disappeared cross vault without ribs. A cannon loophole was subsequently cut into the masonry. A similar loophole on the first floor allowed firing obliquely downward. On the third floor are three large trapezoidal chambers for cannons with traces of devices that helped manipulate heavy barrels. Two air vents provided ventilation to this floor. The fourth floor has three smaller loopholes. These were probably ventilated by openings between the corbels that support the wall-walk. Through the keyhole-shaped loopholes in the parapet wall of the wall-walk, defenders could fire hand cannons that they rested against inserted wooden beams.