Zámek Hluboká nad Vltavou Castle

Zámek Hluboká nad Vltavou switches off over the same town near České Budějovice. The most visited places in the Czech Republic are rightly situated - it is accessible to the public, surrounded by ornamental gardens and an English park, and in the former castle riding hall is today located the Alšov South Bohemia Gallery with a collection of statues and paintings of Dutch and Flemish painters of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The very name Deep has two possible interpretations. Either it refers to a medieval castle well, originally a hundred and twenty meters deep (now reaching the depth of ninety metres), or it resembles the location of the original castle over a deep valley. The town was called Podhrad until 1885 and the city status was acquired instead of the town in 1907.

The beginning of the mansion dates back to the thirteenth century, when Fronburg Castle was built in the location for strategic reasons. His founder was probably the Czech king Václav I. In the second half of the same age owned the castle Čéč z Budivojovic, to which Václav I. pawned it, but King Přemysl Otakar II took him away from ČEč and incorporated him back among the royal castles. Another holder was Vítek z Krumlova, originally the purcrabi. Since 1289, King Václav II sought to return the castle to the Royal Chamber. This was achieved after the execution of Vítkov's brother Zavich of Falkenstejn, carried out in the meadow directly under a deep castle on 24 August 1290.

In the following centuries, the owners took turns in a fast sequence. Emperor Zikmund Castle stopped Mikuláš from Lobkovice, from whose descendants he bought it from in 1454 Jiří z Poděbrad and wrote as dowry to his second wife Johance from Rožmitál. After the monarch's death, Henry Roubek of Hlavatec took possession of the castle and returned it to the Queen only after compensation for war damage. Johanka held the Deep for a total of twenty-one years, 17 of them as Czech queen. After her death on November 12, 1475, the castle belonged to her brother Jaroslav Lva from Rožmitál and to Blatná. In 1490 the estate stopped Vladislav II. Wilhelm from Pernštejn, under whose family a number of ponds were created in the vicinity. After the temporary ownership of John of Pernštejn, Hluká switched in 1534 to his brother-in-law Ondřej Ungnado of Sunek, whose descendants the Royal Chamber bought her from in 1561.

In 1562 Jáchym from Hradec bought the manor and the Lords from Hradec had the old Gothic castle rebuilt into a Renaissance castle. In December 1598, Jáchym Oldřich of Hradec sold his debt to Bohuslav Malovka of Malovice, whose descendants were confiscated in 1622 for participating in the state uprising. The estate was acquired by the Spanish aristocrat and imperial field marshal Baltasar Marradas, who in the years 1620-1638 had modified the preamble. After his death in 1638, the estate was inherited by his nephew Francesco de Salant y Marradas and, in 1661, by his son Bartholomew, Jan Adolf I. ze Schwarzenbergu, the founder of the South Bohemian branch of the family, who lived here for almost three centuries. On the initiative of Prince Adam František, the castle was rebuilt in the Baroque style in the early 18th century according to the plans of builder Pavel Ignác Bayer and his successor Antonín Erhard Martinelli.

In the war on Austrian heritage, they occupied the Deep French-Bavarian forces and repeatedly besieged by the Austrian army in 1742. The bridge was destroyed during the fighting and the tower clock was damaged. Although the fortification was over 200 years old, the crew resisted until she ran out of food. Soon after, the fortifications were demolished and replaced by economic buildings.

Today's visitor will find the castle in the care of the National Heritage Institute. In addition to the interiors, they attract ornamental gardens and an English park, the northeast part of which belongs to the Europe-important location of the Deep Barrier. Alšov's South Czech Gallery in the former Horseman with a collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries deserves a separate stop.