Nové Hrady - The Old Castle

Trail "People and their Landscape"

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Stary HradThe Nove Hrady Castle stems from the middle of the 13th century, when it was built like a guard castle on a trading trail. The castle is standing on a 150-feet high protruding rock ledge and surrounded by a 50-feet deep moat. In 1425, in the Hussite wars the castle was conquered and burned. It was not rebuilt until 1562 by Wilhelm of Rozmberk. In the year 1573, the renewed

building sustained severe damages by a gunpowder explosion in the tower. Further damages came from an earthquake in the year 1590. The castle needed mayor repairs that were completed in 1605. After the Rozmberk family died out in 1611, the Schwanbergs became the new owners. Their ownership was short-lived. They were involved in the revolt of the protestant Bohemian Estates against the catholic Habsburg Emperors at the beginning of the Thirty Year War (1618 – 1648). The revolt was crushed at the Battle of the White Mountain. Most of the Bohemian Estates were confiscated and given as spoils of war to the foreign nobility supporting the emperor.

Hrad interiorIn 1619, the troops of General Karl Bonaventura de Longueval, Count of Buquoy conquered Nove Hrady. In 1620, Emperor Ferdinand II granted the count the Estates of Nove Hrady, Rozmberk, and Libejovice as compensation for the military expenses made by the count in helping to suppress the Bohemian Revolt.

Since the Buqouy family preferred to live in the Residence, the castle was mainly used as offices for the estate and as staff quarters. In June 2000, the restoration of the since 1947 state-owned castle was completed and the castle opened for public (www.hrad-novehrady.eu).

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