Moravian jewel: the Buchlov Castle / Klenot Moravy: Hrad Buchlov

Buchlov castle is not only one of the oldest but also one of the biggest castles in Moravia. Its construction began as early as in the year of 1250. As time went by the different owners kept adding on other parts to the already existing Gothic-style central building, which has created rather mixed, yet still endearing, architectural style of today. Buchlov was founded by one of the Czech kings to serve as a strategic defense fort. In the 15th century the king Vladislav II. Jagelonsky gave it away as a gift to one of his knights and since then it has never been owned by a royal family again. During the 17th century the castle was passed down to a fellow who decided the castle was not good enough for him (did it have only 300 rooms and he wanted 500 of them?? Or was the kitchen too small?? Who knows..) and built another residence of his, the Buchlov palace. In the 18th century the castle inherited the son of Maria Theresa (the Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, a great humanitarian and a reformer). And since he inherited some of those “good” genes, he decided to make a hospital out of his fortress. He also built the “Stinkies” hot springs since they were operating on the powers of the ever-pungent sulfur. And finally in 1945 the Communists stole the building from its owner of that time and pronounced it a “government property”, which today still is. What else is interesting about this place?

• It caught on fire 3 times; the last incident in 1931 was caused by this unruly visitor who threw his cigarette butt on one of the authentic Medieval straw roofs and – you know the rest…
• The castle’s surrounding garden has 2 trees in it that are 300 years old!

Hrad Buchlov patri nejen mezi nestarsi, ale take nejvetsi hrady Moravy. Jeho stavba byla pocata kolem roku 1250 s tim, ze na puvodni hrad byly pozvolna nastavovany dalsi kridla, a to kazde v jinem stavebnim stylu (takovy stavebni mismas)! Je to tedy jakysi mismas ceske architektury. Hrad byl zalozen ceskym kralem jako strategicky obranna pevnost. V 15. stoleti jej Vladislav II. Jagelonsky venovan misntimu slechtickemu rodu a tim tak konci historie Buchlova coby kralovskeho hradu. V 17. stoleni hrad tehdejsimu obyvateli z neznamych duvodu prestal vyhovovat (nedostatek pokoju??), postavil si misto toho zamek Buchlov a na hrad zanevrel. V 18. stoleti zdedil hrad syn Marie Terezie a jako spravny osvicenec a humanista premnenil hrad Buchlov v nemocnici a nedaleko od hradu take postavil sirne lazne Smradavky. Roku 1945 byl hrad vlastnikovi hrad statem zabaven a statu nalezi dodnes. Zajimavosti?

• Hrad byl 3krat v plamenech, naposledy roku 1931 kdy jeden z nedockavych navstevniku – kuraku – hodil nedopalek na jednu z doskovych strech….
• Okoli hradu take vlastni dva velmi zvlastni stromy: jednomu je 300 let a tomu druhemu 200 let.

http://www.pruvodce.com/buchlov/

http://www.castles.cz/object.php?oid=52&pg=2