OrlÃk Castle
Historical view of castle Orlik and Moldavia
The castle Orlik nad Vltavou ( German Worlik ) is located in the municipality of Orlik nad Vltavou in South Bohemia, (Czech Republic) on a high, facing north-east spur of rock on the left bank of the Vltava River ( about 365 m nm), whose width in the southwest approximately 80 m, and its plateau gradually slopes down to the tip. The environment of the castle was changed significantly with the installation of Orlik Dam 1960-1962. Today the castle is owned by the Schwarzenberg family since 1992 belongs to the most famous and most visited historical buildings in Bohemia. A small area is used as a residence, the greater part houses an exhibition showing the history of the castle and the castle and the living environment of the Schwarzenberg family especially in the 19th century, the castle interior are considered a prime example of the lifestyle of the nobility at this time can.
History and Architectural History
The castle in the 13th and 14th centuries
Orlik was a royal castle towards the end of the reign of Přemysl Otakar II (1253-1278) "on wild roots ", ie without the presence of a previous system, was founded. Its functions included the protection of a ford and the imposition of a duty on the Vltava River. During the so-called bad years, 1288-1289, the castle was owned by the party of Zawisch of Falkenstein, who with other nobles in open battle against the royal power, the Brandenburg Margrave Otto IV as guardian of Wenceslas II, was.
In previous research there is disagreement about the oldest form of the castle. After Thomas Durdik it should be a smaller, two-piece castle with elements of the French fort. While he and most other castle researchers previously expected it to the tower on the northwest corner has been built in the 13th century, Jiři Varhaník recognized it as a built only in the 15th century artillery bastion. One also assumed for the original building tower in the southeast has never existed in the kennel area at the archaeological investigations in 1998.
The determining factor for the shape of the castle were the morphology and the original relief. In the field of the western entrance wing is a boulder, which simultaneously represents the highest terrain point, included in the massing of the castle. During archaeological excavations in the courtyard of the castle in spring 2000 settlement layers could be found, dating to the second half of the 13th century. By the beginning of the 14th century, a ring wall was built on the south wall of the north-western wing was set up later. The original entrance was located approximately in the range of today's passage into the courtyard. As part of the remodeling and expansion at about the turn of the 13th to the 14th century, the castle Orlik probably consisted of a residential building on the southeast perimeter wall and a dungeon with a diameter of about ten meters in the middle of the western side, of the same monitoring of the entrance area served. Even before the middle of the 14th century seem to have been added to the south wall of the chapel and the so-called hunters hall.
The conversion to the Hussites in the 15th century
In the years 1407 to 1508 the castle was owned by the family of the Zmrzlík of Schweißing. Your most important representative, Peter Zmrzlík of Schweißing († 1421 ), member of the royal council and Master of the Mint King Wenceslas IV, the castle was purchased in 1407 by Ondřej Huller. 1408 began the friend of Master Jan Hus and devotee of the teachings with the reinforcement of the defense system by expanding the western curtain wall and the construction of the battery tower on the northwest corner. Receive up to now have some firing chambers for firearms with which the past and the road leading Moldova ford could be coated. Also the sons of Petr Zmrzlík, Vacláv and Jan, took an active part in the Hussite campaigns. 1422 was the significant Hussite military leader Jan Žižka Trocnov guest in the castle.
The Renaissance reconstruction under the swan salvors
After a disastrous fire in 1508, the ruinous and abandoned plant was sold in 1514 to Christoph of Swan Mountain, who immediately began to rebuild. In the time of the second restructuring under the Lords of Swan Mountain after the year 1575 the castle was rebuilt in the Renaissance style, the second floor of the north-western wing placed in the courtyard and arcades were added. The foundations of this and the remains of an originally to the Renaissance arcade leading up and again eliminated in the 19th century staircase could be exposed in the excavations of 2000.
Conversions from the 17th to 20th century
More conversions experienced the 1719 in the family of Schwarzenberg located castle in the 18th century in Baroque style in 1802 after a devastating fire in the classical style and the end of the 19th century in Neo-Gothic style, now the image of the system with the three- tower front much determined.
From the pretty bailey in the southwest before the deep moat have only a few younger farm buildings, probably, from the 18th century, the remaining buildings were apparently leveled previously.