Karlštejn Castle, Rococo hunting château in Karlštejn, Svratouch, Czech Republic

Karlštejn is a Rococo hunting château built between 1770 and 1775 for Count Filip Kinský, standing at 780 m on the Karlštejn hill above Svratouch, the highest château in the Czech Republic. Its one-storey central pavilion with a double hipped roof joins two single-storey wings in a horseshoe plan, and the Chapel of St Giles with its domed bell turret is built into the south-east wing. The plastered walls carry pale mortar bands framing fields of a contrasting wine-red façade.

Count Philipp Kinský commissioned the hunting château in 1770, and the complex was finished by 1776 beside the earlier Chapel of St Giles, consecrated altar in 1708. In 1784 an office for managing the local ironworks was installed here. The Thurn und Taxis family bought the estate in 1823 and used the château mainly as a forestry administration until 1945, when it was confiscated.

The château's name comes from the hill Karlštejn (784 m), which gave its name to the settlement Karlštejn and to the nearby rock formation Zkamenělý zámek, called Starý Karlštejn in the 18th and 19th centuries. The chapel of St Giles, patron of forests, was built into the southeast wing and keeps its dome and bell turret with a cross. The grounds were used for hunting: a red deer preserve, Stará obora, was abolished in 1805 and a black game preserve in 1825.

The château stands on Karlštejn hill at 780 m, the highest château site in Czechia, reached by a side road off route II/354 about 2.1 km southeast of Svratouch. A red-marked hiking trail climbs from Svratka's náměstí 9. května past the Golf Club Svratka 1932. The grounds reopened to the public in July 2020 after renovation from 2014 to 2020.

The château stands on the European watershed between the Elbe and Danube, which earned it the nickname "Roof of Europe". A straight maple avenue runs northeast from the building through the former deer park to Ruda.