Tedražice Fortress

Welcome to the gates of history. You are standing before a fortress in Tedražice, a place that has served for centuries as the heart of this little estate. Before you take the next step and start looking closely, stop for a moment and feel the atmosphere of this place. Do you feel the strange weight of time floating around here? This building is not just a wall and stones, it is a living chronicle that survived the ups and downs of many families, political upheavals and devastating wars. There is a sense of peace in the rural village, but at the same time the nobility of the mansion, which once determined the fate of the whole area.

Let us now move further into the past together to understand why this place was created. The whole fascinating story line begins in the second half of the 15th century. That's when the fort was built to form the center of a small estate. Imagine the world back then, the world of local masters who needed a firm and safe place to manage their property and protect their family and subjects. The first written clues that tell us about this place and allow us to reconstruct this history are from 1491. In that year, the building was first written in historical documents and at that time it belonged to the Marcolt family. A few years later, around 1505, Diviš z Tedražic became the sole owner of this farm, thereby strengthening the importance of this place throughout the region.

Now pay attention to the very form of the building that appears before your eyes. Even though the face of the fort has changed over the centuries, you can still feel traces of various epoch that have gradually rolled here. The original medieval essence was later enamelled with Renaissance and Baroque adjustments, which gave it a new touch of elegance. If you look at the structure of the building now, try to realize how its functions and appearance changed depending on the time. At the end of the sixteenth century, Volfgang brought a fundamental change to Gothard Perglár. It was he who added a new passage and that characteristic six-sided tower that is equipped with a chapel. This tower added a new dimension to the building and also brought it a spiritual dimension. But it must be remembered that what you see today is only part of its past glory. In the nineteenth century, the fortress lost many of its original essays that made it so unique. Yet, despite these losses, the building has retained its dignity and since 1964 it has been protected as a cultural monument, allowing us to admire it today in its present form.

But the history of this place is much more than just a story of stones and architecture. It's the story of the people who lived here, ruled and often fought for their existence. We can name many names here that have registered in the history of this fortress, from John Mutrplos to the Markolt family. But one story may be most human and fascinating. It's the story of Mandalena Perglar. In 1623 she had to follow her property through a very difficult and relentless journey. She had to defend herself in court to pay her inheritance back. Imagine the tireless effort to keep a family fortune in a time when the world around it was turning into total chaos. And it was the chaos that came with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. At that time, this fort was occupied by Imperial troops under the command of Baltasar Marradas. The building became not only a home, but also a strategic point in the bloody conflicts of the then Europe. Later, in its walls, events took place with other important families, such as Švihovský, such as Isabella Emilie Švihovska of Salm and Neubork over Ino, or Florián Jaroslav Švihovský. Each of these names left an invisible mark in this place.

Dive for a while over what these walls have experienced. There's something mysterious about how she managed to return to today's form through all these storms. Imagine that six-sided tower with the chapel standing in silence and prayer, while there was a war outside and soldiers moving around. Or imagine the uncertainty Mandalena Perglar had to experience when she fought for her home and her status. This fortress is not just a dead object, it is a witness to human efforts, legal struggles and military tension. There is also a certain melancholy of those elements that were lost in the nineteenth century - what was there before? What details of the building's face do we no longer see? This question remains in space and gives the place its unique atmosphere.

But we are not delaying you now. You have room for further discovery. See the surroundings, feel the calm of this place and try to complete in your imagination the parts that have been lost in the past. Let yourself be carried away by imagination and see each wall as a chapter of the great story that has been written here since the fifteenth century. Thank you for visiting Tedražice and for choosing to share this story with us. We wish you a pleasant rest of the tour and many interesting experiences during your next tour of history.