Travel adventures - Český Šternberk
As you might know already, I visited Czech Republic on my last trip of 2018. Last month I showed you around Český Krumlov and today I'm going to take you to Český Šternberk with me.
You can get to Český Šternberk from Prague in about 45 minutes by car. It's a small village on the river Sazava. The village itself is not that interesting and we came here to visit a castle overlooking Český Šternberk.
After you park your car you will have to walk up the hill for about 5 - 10 minutes. The castle is open to public but in the winter months you may need to call them in advance to arrange the excursion. You can't visit the castle without a tour guide. Are you wondering why?
Český Šternberk castle is a private property and the owner with his wife live on one floor of the castle. Tourists are not allowed to wander around the castle without the tour guide to protect their privacy. That part of the castle is obviously not accessible.
When you get to the top of the hill, follow the signs to the ticket office. There you will pay for your purchased tickets. A tour in English is 180 CZK per person (about 6.70 USD). You might wait for a few minutes to get all people together before the start of your tour.
We were lucky as we had the tour guide just for ourselves (2 people) 😊
I have to say that this is very special as around 100000 tourists visit the castle every year 😊
Let's start the tour!
The castle was built by the Zdeslav of Divišov in the 13th century. At that time there were many German settlers in the region, and he took the name Sternberg from the German word for star (stern) and hill (berg). The eight-pointed star is still the Sternberg symbol today.
The heraldic symbol was also accompanied by a family motto. "The star that never falls down".
The Sternberg family became one of the oldest aristocratic families in Czech Republic. They have been in the possession of the castle from its very beginning.
The castle was reconstructed in the 15th and 16th century. Jiří Sternberg and his mother Carolina also restored the castle at great expense at the beginning of the 20th Century.
When the castle was taken over by the Communists in 1949, Jiří Sternberg became a castellan and a tour guide and he was allowed to still live in the castle with his family. The owner of the castle was suddenly occupying only two rooms with his whole family. But he didn't leave the castle. He stayed there and made sure that all artifacts remained untouched.
After the restitution, the castle was returned back to the family and his son Zdeněk returned from Vienna to take care of it.
The current owner Zdeněk Sternberg is the second eldest son of the nine children. He is 96 years old and he is a descendant in the 20th generation of the founder.
He and his wife have a separate entrance to the castle and live in the part of the castle that used to be for guests. The floor of the castle where the family lived before serves now as a museum.
This is the part of the castle that is private..
The tour starts one floor above the private part.
There is no central heating in this part of the castle so it's very cold. I think it was even colder than outside. Our tour guide mentioned that it's quite cold in summer as well, so make sure to dress properly.
During our tour we will visit 15 rooms furnished in various historical periods. We will go through The Knight's Hall, The Dining Room, The Yellow Salon, The Ladies’ Lounge, The Chapel, The Library, and a few more.
The Knight's Hall is the most impressive room in the castle. It dates back to the 15th century. The high walls and ceiling of the room are decorated with beautiful stucco adornments.
There is so much to see in this room that you have to walk around a few times to notice various details...
All room is decorated with coats of arms related to the family and there are portraits of the family members hanging on the walls..
This wooden box is the oldest artifact in the castle..
From The Knight's Hall we enter a room with a portrait of Carolina of Sternberg - grandmother of Zdeněk Sternberg.
She is known for hiding her 'silver treasure' (jewelry, cutlery, decoration, etc), so that it wouldn't be stolen during the communism. The treasure was found after returning the castle back to the family in 1989. You can see her treasure in the castle. It is in a glass vitrine that reflects the light so I was not able to take a picture and you'll have to come yourself if you want to see it 😊
On the other side of the room is a beautiful small lounge from the 17th century.
The next room is The Ladies' Lounge. The room is furnished with the 18th century Rococo floral furniture.
The chairs do not have armrests because the women sitting in them during that period wore big and wide dresses. I've seen so many chairs from this period but never realized that they don't have armrests. It is such a practical solution! Otherwise it would probably be very uncomfortable..
From the ladies' lounge we enter The Library. This room holds more than 2500 books. Most books are from the 19th century but there are some of them dating back to 17th and 18th century as well..
I have always dreamed about having such library at home 😊
The Dining Room is the second largest room in the castle. This room is dominated by a large table with 12 chairs. In case there were more quests a few chairs could be added. The room is equipped with precious silverware..
The last room that I will show you today is the one with the Sternberg family tree. Zdeněk Sternberg has only one son Filip who lives with his daughter in Vienna. They visit the castle a couple of times every year.
The tour takes approximately one hour. After that you can go to the village and support the castle by getting a meal in their hotel nearby 😊
Thank you for reading,
Cheers,
Martina
PS: All photos are taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7 as my old camera broke during this trip.
Wow, I've missed your posts... I love this stuff... You always do a fantastic job of telling the story and showing us too... You have a wonderful set of experiences and I know you treasure them too! So keep it up and have a wonderful day Martina!
Thank you for your kind words Dave! I do treasure the experiences that I have as nowadays I spend most of my days sitting behind the computer and working on my business plan so no time to travel. I hope that I will be able to make at least a few trips this year :)
Have an amazing day Dave!
Truly amazing place and that it has been in the family for 20 generations is unbelievable. Thanks for sharing the adventure with us.
I was also surprised that the family owned the castle all the time.. I haven't been to such place before..
Thank you for stopping by! :)
Just squeezed in before the end of the 7 days! What an awesome castle and love that library - 2,500 books, can't imagine reading that many! I guess they didn't have as many distractions like we do today back then! Thanks for taking us on the tour with you Martina! Take it easy, look forward to the next one :)
Well done you!! :)
Me neither, but how cool would that be to have such library at home? You don't have to read them, just having them is nice :)
Thank you for stopping by :) I try to come online as much as I can but it's more and more difficult with other things that I have to do..
Howdy delishtreats! Amazing and beautiful and it's remarkable that the castle has been in the same family's ownership since it was built! Have you ever heard of that before? I loved the tour, great job!
Hey cowboy!! It's so nice to hear from you! I don't have so much time nowadays to go online but I'm always happy to see your comments :)
No, no, I've never heard of that before.. how cool is that? 20 generations! I hope that it will continue like this and that his son will come from Vienna to take care of the castle when it's the right time.
Thank you for stopping by John!
Howdy today delishtreats! You don't have much time to be online because you are setting up your business right? That is so exciting and a wondeful mission and priority. I would probably forget about steemit but then I can usually only handle one thing at a time and most women are multi-taskers and can handle several things at once!
Anyway I hope you have time to do some posts about it like when you find the right building.
Exactly! There is just so much to do and I wish I had more time per day than I actually have :)
Hahaha, I am absolutely a multi-tasker :D However you can be a multi-tasker but the day still only has 24 hours, doesn't it?
I will be happy to do some posts about it :)
ha! howdy delishtreats! I can see you being the best business owner in Switzerland! lol. It's going to be brilliant. In a year's time you'll be looking for a second location.
Our internet provider was down for 2 days, what kind of internet service do you have there? Don't tell me it's fast and free! lol.
Hahaha, now I have to find a first one though :D
No, no, we don't face such issues. I have a different provider for my internet at home and for my mobile phone. So if there is any issue with the home one, I just turn on the hotspot on my phone and I'm good to go. It doesn't happen often - maybe once in 2 months for an hour or so..
How can it be done for 2 days?
Howdy delishtreats! I've heard that the United States is ridiculously far behind the rest of the world in internet services and technology. Why that would be I don't know but being in the country we have very few options. we are used to ours going offline often, for 30 minutes or a few hours..it's been one of my biggest problems in trying to do well in the League, plus my old computer stalls out and takes forever to load pages. lol
But anyway, our internet provider switched to a different type of signal which our receiver from them doesn't get, our old receiver is not compatible with their new signal. But they didn't tell us that. We are used to it going out so the first day we didn't think much about it. The second day we called and they sent out a technitian and he told us what was going on. But by the time he got a new system installed on the roof it had been almost 2 full days.
Your system sounds like a dream!
What about getting a new provider? Or is that not possible?
Hahaha, I can't even imagine facing such issues in this century :D
What a beautiful property. I love visiting old houses like this, though I always feel a little sad when I think about how they were once used and full of life. A village and it's people would earn their living from working at it and it would be a part of the community and the house would be humming with activity and most likely warmer with fires in many of the rooms.
Such a beautiful property @delishtreats and a fun place to go.
Actually this one is almost like the 'ideal' one that you described. The owner still live there and people from the village do work there. There is also a hotel and a production company that belongs to the owner of the castle and he employs people from the village only :)
There is not much work in the region and this is his way to help people to live better lives. I've talked to the tour guide and she said that it's a great co-operation.
The only thing that is missing is the fire :) But this is a rich family and they had to show it off so they installed central heating at the beginning of the 20th century. They don't heat the whole castle as it's too expensive though...
Thank you for stopping by and for your thoughtful comment!
What an incredible history that castle has! What do the library like that the pure heaven? I have always wanted one too. I had never heard that about chairs and women's dresses before, but it makes absolutely perfect sense.
Me too! Such library is a dream of mine! That smell of books.. I feel constantly relaxed :)
Me neither! But yes, it does make perfect sense! And every day is a school day :)
Loved seeing the landscape as you approached the castle Martina. If you were on foot and working your way through the willowy leafless trees and the thickets of undergrowth, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a bewitched forest and about to meet The Beast. But I can't see any red roses and a Beast's castle must be covered with climbing red roses ~ Or do I have my fairy tales all mixed up?
It's wonderful that a place like this had been restored and then not destroyed. And so wonderfully cared for now. Must have been quite a lifestyle shift for the Sternberg family. The motto is so poetic and powerful: The star that never falls down. Perhaps it has protected the castle.
Your presentation and photographs are as beautifully ordered and aesthetically pleasing as the castle itself. I've enjoyed looking at them all so much as I'm not likely to have the opportunity to go to Prague. I especially liked seeing the library and then the family tree. Such a lovely concept ~ Could be contemporary. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
Hahaha, no, no, you don't :) It should be covered with climbing red roses but this is unfortunately another castle :)
They went through tough time but kept standing strong. It's a very remarkable family. And you are right, their motto might have protected the castle :)
Thank you sooo much for your kind words! And I hope that one day you would make it there. It's such an amazing city and you would love it to the bits.
I also enjoyed the library and the family tree the most. Libraries have always been my favorite. Just sitting there and looking at the books makes me feel relaxed. And I love reading!
Have a lovely weekend and I'm glad that you have stopped by ;)
That is quite an impressive place, and decorated so beautifully! I am quite taken by the family tree mural on the wall, complete with photographs! Thanks for showing us this historical gem! 😃
Yes! That family tree is a cool piece! It's interesting to see all those family members all together...
Thank you for stopping by!
I love touring and even seeing photos of places like this. I try to imagine the people who lived in them long ago and the craftsmen who built them. How different their lives were from ours, yet how similar their desires must have been.
Proud member of #powerhousecreatives
I have similar thoughts when I visit such old places.. they were so different but also very similar to us at the same time..
It must have been a lot of work to build something like that with no machines like we have nowadays :)
Very well written article, Martina! Thanks for all these fabulous photos.
That's exactly the kind of castle I like to visit. Very well equipped, which gives us the sense of how life would be, back then. (Usually most castles I visited were empty and unappealing.)
I also like to visit such castle. It's such a pity when those castles are empty. The space loses its spirit like this. But luckily there were not that many empty ones that I've visited :)
Thank you for stopping by! I'm glad that you liked my post!