Poděbrady Castle, Baroque castle in Poděbrady, Czech Republic.
Poděbrady Castle is a baroque château on the bank of the Elbe river, in the town of Poděbrady in central Bohemia, Czech Republic. The building is organized around a central courtyard with arcade walkways, and its façades carry details from several rebuilding phases over the centuries.
A wooden fortress stood on this site in the early Middle Ages, before a stone castle was built here in the 13th century. Over the following centuries, the structure changed hands many times and was rebuilt in the baroque style that visitors see today.
The castle houses the Polabské Museum's exhibition on King George of Poděbrady, which also covers Bohuslav Schnirch, sculptor of the king's statue on the square and of the fountain in the courtyard. A lapidarium occupies the cellar, and the University of Karlova's language institute and the Divadlo Na Kovárně theatre also work in the building.
The castle stands at the edge of Poděbrady's town center, close to the Elbe, and is easy to reach on foot from the main square. Some interior rooms can only be visited on a guided tour, while the courtyard is generally open to walk through.
Sources record George of Poděbrady's birth in the castle only as a legend, not as established fact. The castle's lapidarium in the cellars holds stone sculpture, and the Polabian Museum's exhibit honours the king and Bohuslav Schnirch, who made his square's statue and the courtyard fountain.
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