Svojanov Castle, Gothic castle in Svojanov, Czech Republic.
Svojanov Castle is a fortress built in Gothic architectural style with later Empire-style additions, standing on elevated ground with stone walls, towers, and a palace structure. The building combines medieval defensive elements with refined interior spaces added during different periods of expansion and renovation.
Svojanov was probably founded by King Přemysl Otakar II around 1265, together with the nearby town of Polička, and first appears in writing in 1287 as the property of Záviš of Falkenštejn. Charles IV listed it among eleven castles that could not be removed from the crown's property, yet Sigismund pledged it to the lords of Boskovice during the Hussite wars. A fire and Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War damaged it, and from 1910 the town of Polička began its restoration.
The castle's German name Fürstenberg, meaning "Prince's Mountain", was given by Přemysl Otakar II but never caught on. The grounds inspired Jaroslav Vrchlický's poems Svojanovské granáty and Bohuslav Březovský's children's book Tajemný hrad Svojanov, and a 2005 Gypsy Celebration music documentary was filmed here.
The castle opens from March to mid-December and has its own restaurant and guesthouse. The outdoor grounds can be toured on foot, with a climb up the tower; interiors show a furnished installation of life in the second half of the 19th century, and the cellars and the Gothic-Renaissance house of the armour-bearers are also open.
A well covered at the start of the 20th century was found in the courtyard in 2011. In the first half of the 19th century the grounds held a graphite workshop that made graphite ceramics and stoves until a fire in 1842.
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