Strakonice Castle: A Medieval Feudal Castle and Hospitaller Residence in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Crusader, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia, Knights Hospitaller
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page19 sections
History
Strakonice Castle is a medieval castle in Strakonice, Czechia, built by the Bavor family between the early thirteenth century and the 1230s. Standing at the confluence of the Otava and Volyňka rivers in South Bohemia, it is among the oldest castles in the Czech lands and combines a feudal stronghold with a residence of the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military and religious order that operated hospitals and assisted or defended pilgrims.
Bavor foundation and the Hospitaller commandery
The castle was probably founded between 1220 and 1235, although another proposed date places its beginnings in the last third of the twelfth century. Bavor I, a burgrave of Zvíkov who took part in a crusade and died in 1260, is first recorded as Bavor “of Strakonice” in 1235. This is the earliest documentary evidence linking him with the castle.
In 1243, Bavor I and his wife, whose name is uncertain, gave the eastern half of the castle, including the Church of Saint Procopius, to the Knights Hospitaller. The donation also included extensive lands and villages. The order established a commandery, a local administrative and residential centre, while the Bavors retained the secular part of the complex.
Strakonice suited the Hospitallers because it stood where important routes from Prague to Bavaria and from Plzeň to Upper Austria intersected. On the Otava bank, under the castle’s protection, they founded a hospital for pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. The castle therefore developed as two related but distinct institutions, with the Bavor residence and the Hospitaller religious complex occupying separate areas.
Expansion and division of the Bavor estate
Bavor II enlarged and rebuilt the residence after 1270. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Bavor III carried out extensive works, particularly in the Hospitaller section, and completed the castle church. Between 1312 and 1315, Bavor III divided the family estates with his two younger brothers. The Strakonice estate and castle passed to his brother Vilém of Strakonice, who occupied the southwestern part of the complex.
Vilém’s nephew Bavor IV, also called Bašek of Blatná, inherited the estate. In 1367 he granted the town and adjacent lands emphyteutic rights, a hereditary form of land tenure held in return for specified obligations or payments. After Bašek’s death, the estate passed to his underage brothers Brženek and Jan under the guardianship of their uncle Zdeněk of Rožmitál.
Brženek became the full owner in 1394. He later joined the aristocratic revolt against King Wenceslas IV and, burdened by debt, sold the estate and his part of the castle in 1402. Vikéř of Enišovice bought it and immediately sold it to Jindřich of Hradec, grand prior of the Hospitallers’ Bohemian province. The Hospitallers thereby acquired the entire castle.
Hospitaller headquarters and political alliance
After Hussite forces destroyed the Hospitallers’ residence in Prague on 8 May 1420, Grand Prior Rupert II Lubinský moved the headquarters of the order in the Kingdom of Bohemia to Strakonice. The archives and insignia were transferred with it, and the castle served for centuries as the seat of the grand prior of the Bohemian province.
During the Hussite Wars, a conflict in which religious reformers challenged the established Catholic order in Bohemia, the Bohemian Hospitallers supported the king and later aligned themselves with the Habsburgs. On 8 February 1449, leading Catholic nobles from southern and western Bohemia met at Strakonice under Grand Prior Václav of Michalovice and the Rosenberg lord Oldřich II. They formed the Strakonice Unity, a political alliance directed against George of Poděbrady.
The castle’s religious and charitable functions continued to develop. In 1454, under Oldřich of Rosenberg, the castle hospital and the Church of Saint Margaret were improved to house at least ten people. In 1496, Grand Prior Jan of Švamberk ordered a large bell named Jan to be installed in the bell tower of the Church of Saint Procopius.
Renaissance rebuilding and later destruction
Major Renaissance rebuilding took place during the tenure of Grand Prior Jan III of Rosenberg, from 1511 to 1532. The Bavor Palace was enlarged into a complex that incorporated the chapter hall and deanery. The Jelenka tower was also built, including a banquet hall used for feasts after deer hunts.
Under Grand Prior Václav Zajíc of Hazmburk, who served from 1555 to 1578, the north wing was converted into a brewery. The first inventory of the castle’s property was compiled during this period, and the brewery is recorded by 1578.
The Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict of 1618 to 1648 involving religious and dynastic struggles, brought severe damage. Forces commanded by Peter Ernst von Mansfeld captured and looted the castle in 1619. Swedish troops took it in 1641, devastating the castle, the Church of Saint Procopius, and the town. A local tradition says that a miller’s assistant guided the Swedes through a small concealed door in the northern wall. The opening became known as the Swedish Door.
In 1650, a copy of the image of Our Lady of Victory was placed in the castle church, where it remains. The original image had been associated with the Battle of White Mountain and was later taken to Rome. After the war, relations worsened between the grand prior living at the castle and the town magistrates, while the order’s interest in the deteriorating complex declined. In 1694, after more than 270 years, the headquarters of the Bohemian Hospitallers returned to Prague.
Baroque rebuilding and nineteenth-century change
Grand Prior Ferdinand Leopold Dubský of Třebomyslice, who served from 1714 to 1721, began the castle’s final major rebuilding. In 1715 he constructed a new palace at the confluence of the Otava and Volyňka and started rebuilding the Church of Saint Procopius in the Baroque style. Grand Prior Václav Jáchym Čejka of Olbramovice directed major repairs from 1744 to 1754. He refitted the new palace, changed the moat into a park, established a pheasant preserve west of the castle, and built a footbridge over the Volyňka.
By the end of the eighteenth century, some parts of the complex were threatened with collapse. After 1800, Grand Prior Josef Maria Colloredo-Wallsee ordered the upper part of the southwestern residential tower demolished to first-floor level and incorporated beneath the palace roof. He also commissioned a detailed inspection of the Strakonice estate and work on the extensive Hospitaller archive kept at the castle. Emperor Francis I visited Strakonice Castle in 1800.
In the early 1870s, the Strakonice manufacturer Stein built a two-storey palace immediately in front of the castle at Dubovec. In 1871, Grand Prior Othenio Lichnowsky of Werdenberg ordered a high blank wall and cylindrical tower erected between Stein’s palace and the castle to obstruct the manufacturer’s view. The tower became known as the Bastion of Stubbornness. Both the wall and tower were demolished between 1935 and 1937 during construction of the road to Pracejovice.
Sale, confiscation, and return of Hospitaller property
The Hospitallers sold the Strakonice estate in 1925. It included three courtyards, a mill, a brickworks, and the castle brewery. After the First World War, land reform and the seizure of 1,983 hectares had already heavily reduced the estate.
The order restored the Christological fresco cycle in the ambitus, a cloister or covered passage around a monastery courtyard, in 1932 and 1933. In 1939 and 1940, parts of the brewery buildings in the north wing were demolished and apartments were created for members of the Nazi Party.
During the Second World War, the remaining Hospitaller properties within the precinct, including the Church of Saint Procopius and the deanery, were confiscated. Further losses followed through the 1946 Beneš Decrees and communist actions against religious institutions beginning with Operation K in 1949. The last two active members of the clerical convent, including Vladimír Pícha, were repressed. In 1954, the last secretly elected prior, Antonín Voráček, who had also served as town dean since 1939, was imprisoned and returned after an amnesty in 1960.
From 1990, the Czech Grand Priory of the Hospitallers negotiated with the Diocese of České Budějovice over property confiscated during the war. With the approval of Bishop Jiří Paďour, a donation agreement in 2008 returned the Hospitaller property within the castle precinct to the Czech Grand Priory of the Order of Malta.
Strakonice Castle was protected as a cultural monument from 1963 and became a National Cultural Monument of the Czech Republic in 1995. Ownership is divided among three entities. The City of Strakonice owns more than half of the precinct, the South Bohemian Region owns approximately one quarter, and a private owner holds the castle granary. The complex now houses the Museum of the Middle Otava Region, the Šmidinger Library, and the Strakonice Primary Art School. In 2022, the museum acquired former Roman Catholic premises in the castle and created an exhibition on the Order of Malta and its history at Strakonice.
Remains
The castle occupies a rocky hill at the meeting of the Otava and Volyňka. The Otava borders the northern side and the Volyňka the eastern side, while a deep moat protected the west and south. Ponds near Mutěnice could supply the moat with water. The roughly triangular plan narrows toward the east, and the buildings are arranged around three courtyards.
Romanesque and Gothic core
Bavor Palace
The Romanesque core, dated to the 1230s through the 1250s, lies mainly along the southern side and includes the Bavor Palace, the convent, its chapter hall, and the Church of Saint Procopius. The palace occupies the western part of the southern wing. An older and a newer palace stand beneath one roof, with the older building originally taking a fortress-like form reinforced by two towers.
The southwestern section is the oldest part and probably dates from the twelfth century. It may have served as the residence of the first Bavor lords. Its three-storey, four-sided tower was formerly covered by a gabled roof and adjoined by four rooms. Two rooms have barrel vaults. A third is a square hall with four Romanesque vaults springing from a central pillar, while the fourth is a small barrel-vaulted chamber. The hall, now below ground level, serves as a wine cellar. Around 1800, the upper part of the tower was demolished to the level of the palace’s upper storey and placed beneath the shared roof.
Bavor II’s rebuilding after 1270 raised and lengthened the old palace and connected it with the Hospitaller section. A three-storey residential tower was added at the southwestern corner, while a newer palace was built to the east in the Hospitaller area. The preserved Wheel of Fortune fresco dates from about 1310. The palace also contains a castle chapel with a Gothic stone entrance facing and pointed windows, features associated with the rebuilding undertaken by Bavor III, who died in 1318.
Renaissance work survives in the Small Knights’ Hall, which has a beam ceiling, and in the Jelenka bay-tower. Its early sixteenth-century banquet hall contains fragments of wall paintings. Many surviving palace paintings show the Rosenberg heraldic rose, a red five-petalled rose on a white ground.
Church of Saint Procopius
The Church of Saint Procopius stands at the eastern end of the rocky promontory above the river confluence. Built in the late Romanesque style, it was probably established as the Bavor family church in the early thirteenth century. Its original dedication was to Saint Adalbert, but it was known as the Church of Saint Procopius from the fourteenth century.
The western gallery is the oldest surviving part of the church. Soon after the building passed to the Hospitallers, they added a 40-metre tower and a Gothic presbytery, the part surrounding the main altar and reserved for clergy. Gothic construction was completed in the early fourteenth century, giving the church its basic present form.
In the early sixteenth century, the main nave received a late Gothic five-bay cross vault with inserted terracotta rosettes above the gallery. The interior was apparently completed in the late eighteenth century, when the tombstones of Bohemian grand priors buried in the church were removed. The church became a deanery church in 1786 or 1787.
The principal altar, dedicated to Saint Procopius of Sázava, dates from 1693. Most surviving inventories attribute its Saint Procopius altarpiece to the Czech painter Karel Škréta, although that attribution is now considered uncertain. The side doors depict Michael and Saint Lawrence. A side-aisle altar holds a copy of an image of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, whose original, probably from the sixteenth century, is in a Carmelite church in Rome.
The church also contains the wooden Strakonice Madonna, dated to about 1320 to 1330, and a Saint Anne altar with late Gothic carvings. A wooden crucifix from around 1370 hangs above the sacristy entrance. The originals of the Madonna and crucifix are held in the National Gallery in Prague.
Ambitus and chapter hall
The ambitus extends westward from the Church of Saint Procopius and leads to the chapter hall, the room where members of a religious community met for formal business. It is among the oldest surviving parts of the castle. Excavations beneath it found earlier ecclesiastical structures and burials dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The ambitus has cross vaults and early fourteenth-century wall frescoes. Its Christological cycle, a sequence of scenes from the life and works of Christ, depicts Christ’s apostolic activity. A later fresco presents the Virgin Mary as Protectress. The chapter hall contains images of Saints Philip and James. The interiors of the ambitus, chapter hall, and church were completed around 1340.
An early Gothic stone portal in the western part of the ambitus forms the entrance to the chapter hall. It previously served as the entrance to the Chapel of Saint George. The ambitus and chapter hall were returned to the Order of Malta in 2008 and placed in the care of the Museum of the Middle Otava Region.
Courtyards and later residential buildings
First courtyard and grand prior’s residence
The first courtyard occupies the eastern part of the complex. The former grand prior’s residence forms its eastern side, the Church of Saint Procopius its western side, and the former castle brewery its northern side. The new two-storey residence was built around 1715 near the river confluence. Its facade bears Ferdinand Leopold Dubský’s coat of arms and the date 1716, while the main entrance carries the Hospitaller arms.
The residence originally had two side entrances. After 1745, these were replaced by a central entrance with a balcony and metal railings. A three-part gable with a clock projects from the centre of the roof. A southern section was added under later grand priors, and the facade acquired its classical appearance. A 1776 inventory lists six rooms, the grand prior’s apartments, green, red, and yellow chambers, and four small halls beside the staircases.
Former seigneurial brewery
The former seigneurial brewery is a four-storey building in the northern wing on the bank of the Otava. It stands opposite the Church of Saint Procopius between the primary art school, deanery, and museum buildings. A major fire damaged it in 1932. Its first floor contains a public hall, the third floor contains the Maltese Hall, and the fourth floor contains the Knights’ Hall. A stained-glass window above the staircase shows three magpies holding a golden ring. A local tradition connects the name Strakonice with the Czech word for magpie.
Second and third courtyards
The second courtyard is bounded on the south by the convent and Bavor Palace, on the west by the fortification wall and Rumpál tower, and on the north by buildings of the Museum of the Middle Otava Region. A castle well stands near the museum entrance. The courtyard also contains the old and Renaissance residential palace of the commanders, a Romanesque former burgrave’s building with a half-timbered gable, and the western fortification wall.
The third courtyard contains farm buildings and the western gate. It includes the children’s branch of the Šmidinger Library and connects through western gates with the moat and castle garden. The former granary and brewery drying house were converted into multipurpose and exhibition halls.
Fortifications and archaeological evidence
Rumpál tower and moat
Rumpál is a 35-metre Gothic tower of bergfried type, a fortified tower used chiefly as a defensive strongpoint rather than as a permanent residence. It stands on the western fortifications and guards the western entrance. Its outer wall has a wedge-shaped projection designed to provide additional protection against stone projectiles.
The first construction phase included stone walls, the deep southern and western moat, the western part of the church with its tower, the ambitus, and a palace with a chapter hall. Between 2006 and 2010, conservation work restored the medieval fortification wall separating the third courtyard from the river, cleared and rebuilt the moat, and created a crossing near the Jelenka tower. Roofs, facades, the balcony, coat of arms, stone portals, and castle clock were also restored.
Excavated structures and burials
Extensive archaeological research accompanied reconstruction in late 2005 and early 2006. The Museum of the Middle Otava Region organized the work under the direction of archaeologist Jan Michálek. The courtyards were divided into four-by-four-metre squares and excavated and tested by hand to depths of up to two metres.
Near Rumpál tower, at a depth of approximately half a metre, the excavations uncovered the foundation of a medieval building dated to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Near the museum entrance in the southeastern part of the second courtyard, they revealed a rock-cut well about 2.5 metres in diameter and 12.5 metres deep.
Twelfth-century burials were found in the first courtyard during replacement of the water-supply and sewer systems. Bronze artefacts from the burials were transferred to the museum collections. Reconstruction also brought the previously discovered Black Kitchen between the second and third courtyards back into use as the setting for an exhibition of a medieval kitchen. The moat park and animal shelter were reconstructed as part of the same modern conservation programme.
