An unexpected visit of the castle Bečov nad Teplou
Two weeks ago, on the way to Prague we stopped at our favorite hotel in Mariánské Lázně. There is a great swimming pool, relaxing spa, cheap massages and it's a perfect place for walks in nature as the hotel is situated in the forest. We only had one day there, and we spent most of it in the spa resort so there were no walks this time. It's good to relax and do nothing from time to time.
Next day, before we left the hotel, we realized that it wouldn't be the best decision to drive to Prague due to the traffic in the morning and we started to look for something to do before heading to Prague later that day. After a short search we found a state castle called Bečov nad Teplou that is only 30 minutes drive from Mariánské Lázně and we knew that this was the place that we had to see.
The castle was founded by the noblemen family of Osek and its first mention dates back to 1349. It includes a unique set of historical buildings built in various architectural styles.
It consists of a donjon, a connecting wing building, a chapel tower, the Pluh's palace, a bergfrit, stables, forest administration, a baroque palace, a kitchen, brewery cellars, gardens and a park.
The castle reached its peak in the late 15th century, when it belonged to the Pluh family of Rabštejn, who were engaged in gold, silver and tin mining.
There are several parking places under the castle so be prepared to climb some stairs before getting to the complex. Once you enter the complex you feel like you were transported to medieval times.
If you don't want to enter the castle you can enjoy the gardens and you can also go on an educational tour around the castle. We decided to walk around the castle first before our guided tour started.
You can choose from various tours. We got combined tickets for the chateau interiors and reliquary but at the end we only attended the tour of the chateau interiors as it took so long, and we didn't like our tour guide very much. My husband got the information in English with some photos of the reliquary and we agreed that we actually didn't want to see that. But don't feel discouraged. It is just our personal preference and you could like it very much.
Let's start our tour around the castle!
But first we have to climb the stairs up to the small tower with the flag.
Here we go! There is a wooden path around the complex and many signs with various information about the construction of the castle and different aspects of life in medieval times.
There are also some speakers with medieval music that add to the atmosphere of being transported around 600 years in the past.
We also got to enjoy nice views of the village Bečov nad Teplou..
Here is the four-story residential tower which was the perfect place for living in those days..
And now we go back to the palace as our tour of the castle is about to start..
The tour guide picked us up at the gate. She led us through the main hall to the room on the ground floor first.
In that room we gathered around the castle model and we listened to her telling us about the history of the castle, its construction and inhabitants.
The medieval donjon connected to a Baroque castle dominates the narrow river valley. The donjon had been used as a nobleman’s residence until the Swedish attacks during the Thirty Years War. Afterwards the damaged stronghold was left empty and the owners built a new Baroque castle. It was built in the 18th century by Jan Adam Questenberk.
From this room we go to the library..
And then to the second floor.. not sure why we went to the second and then to the first floor but well, it is what it is 😊
On the second floor we went through the furnished rooms..
And observed art from the Baroque period. This is how an artist depicted a giraffe. Yes, it does look like a horse with a long neck 😊
The room was beautiful and it was decorated with carpets on the walls.
The interesting thing was that we were instructed to walk only on the red carpet. Like superstars!
The last room that we saw was the St. Peter´s Chateau Chapel. It is still used for weddings and various ceremonies.
One last view from the window..
And it was the right time to drive to Prague..
We enjoyed our tour of the castle and I hope you did so too.
Thank you for reading,
Cheers,
Martina
Congratulations you post has been added to Dave's list of favorite things to look at! :)
Very cool Martina, love the views overlooking the city and the inside is decorated beautifully! I hope you don't get tired of going to the castles ;)
Great job and love your post (AGAIN)!
Hahaha, I'd like to see that list one day! :)
I hope there are enough castles to continue visiting them :) I already have to travel quite far away as I've seen all of them which are nearby :)
Thank you for stopping by! And I'm sorry for such delay in responding..
Very cool! Those old castles are really fun to explore and are so photogenic. That one looks like it has been very well preserved. The furnished rooms are pretty nice, too. And that "giraffe" is a lot better than I could do as a sculptor, hors-esque or no ;-)
I wish I could get back to Europe, especially Spain and get some newer photos of castles. Being a US Citizen makes getting a work visa pretty difficult, and I have yet to meet a single Spanish lady here in the US... lol
Yes, they are great. I love these places. I have never thought that I would develop such passion about history..
Hahaha, I couldn't do it better either :) The problem was that the artists didn't travel. They were doing their art based on the description from noble people who were traveling all around the world. And well, as you can see, sometimes it didn't work out the right way :)
There are many more countries in Europe :) Just focus on getting a single European lady, lol. There are many US expats in Switzerland. They come here for 2 years with the company they work with and then they return back to the US. This could be an option for you too.. maybe :)
Thank you for stopping by and I'm sorry for such delay in my response..
Hehe, well... It's hard to meet single European ladies where I live.
I really miss having that blend of new and ancient like I had when living in southern Spain. In this part of Minnesota, there wasn't much white settlement until the early 1800's, and the natives of the Great Plains left very little in terms of structures and monuments.
As always, a wonderful tour with great photos! I had to look up what a donjon was. I'm not sure I have heard that word before! The giraffe does have a horse body. Makes you wonder if the artist had ever seen a live giraffe!
I also had to google what a donjon was. I was surprised that it's an English word as it doesn't sound English to me at all.
There were many of these objects in the castle. The problem was that those artists didn't get to travel to the other side of the world and that's why they created their art based on the descriptions they got from the noble people who were traveling.. and they didn't get it right from time to time :D
Well that makes sense.. It would be difficult to describe a giraffe to someone who had never seen one.
Howdy Martina! You got the red carpet treatment like superstars! lol...that place is truly grand. I love those views and the wide staircases and floors, just amazing. I can imagine what a place like that costs these days!
Hey, what is your plan for posting after the hardfork, or will there be any changes?
Hahaha, I have no idea what a place like this could cost these days but it's definitely not going to be cheap :)
I don't have a plan yet. I will definitely continue posting but I don't know how often. I've seen many posts about hardfork but I really need to see how it works before I do something myself.
I haven't been posting for a week now since I'm battling with stomach inflammation and it's not very pleasant I must say. I had a horrible pain in my back for two weeks and took too many pills each day which ended up damaging my stomach. It's better now but it's not yet completely recovered. So I focused on myself and spent minimal time here.
I should be traveling tomorrow so I hope it's going to be good :)
Hope you're doing well :)
Howdy Martina! oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your physical problem, I hope it is temporary? I didn't know you had back problems, is that from an injury or from other things? Anyway, I hope it is feeling better, I hate back pain. It's severe and you can't do much with a hurting back, it's not like you can move around without affecting it!
I feel good now, thank you cowboy. I'm already in Slovakia for the next almost 3 weeks and I always feel better here. It's something in Switzerland what doesn't do me good. It's something unconscious as I feel good in Switzerland or at least I think so :)
How are you doing?
Howdy Martina! I'm so glad you are feeling good! So the stay in Slovakia for 3 weeks is a vacation? There's no place like home.
I'm doing great, splitting my time between steemit and projects around the property. That way I don't get burnt out on either!
Wow that's great! I absolutely must visit Prague!
I've never been there and everybody talks about it well.
You found a perfect weather and you were able to capture the castle and the city with beautiful shots.
I share with you some !trdo :)
Congratulations @alequandro, you are successfuly trended the post that shared by @delishtreats!
@delishtreats got 6 TRDO & @alequandro got 4 TRDO!
"Call TRDO, Your Comment Worth Something!"
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Token distribution bot developed by @ali-h
I'm sorry for such delay. I've been sick and didn't spend much time on Steemit these days..
You absolutely must! It's a place that everyone should visit at least once in a lifetime :)
Thank you for stopping by and also for the tokens :)
This might be my favorite shot from the grouping...Would make an interesting painting I think.
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #598.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting and supporting us.
What a great tour Martina. I like how they made it an immersive experience with the music too. Beautiful!
Thank you for stopping by, Sara! Yes, they did their best to make us feel like we were transported in time..
Pretty awesome sites. How cool to just tour a castle. Hope you enjoyed your travelling even if the tour guide was a little rough around the edges.
I always enjoy traveling. It makes me happy :)
Thank you for stopping by and I'm sorry for such delay in my response!
Thank you for your contribution to the crowd. We are the Steem community project dedicated to empowering The Wisdom of Crowds. You can find more about us on our official website or whitepaper and you can support us by voting for our witness and joining our curation trail on Steemauto . We are also inviting you to join Crowdmind Discord server. Don't forget to use the #crowdmind hashtag and happy crowdsourcing!