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"The
room in which the Emperor Charles resided"...
The Audience
Hall
The
interior of the Audience Hall.
The
Audience Hall, still called "the
room in which the Emperor Charles resided", is one of the few interiors
of the castle to have preserved their original character to the present.
It has rich wooden panelling
and a coffered ceiling, which was painted blue with a gold button in
the centre of every coffer. A part of this panelling is the original,
while a part dates from the time of Mocker's reconstruction of the castle
in the 19th century. The southern wall of this hall originally had a
large oriel on four Gothic corbels in its centre. The side walls of
the oriel were decorated with frescos with the imperial, Bohemian and
Moravian emblems and the inscription "Roma caput mundi regit orbis
frena rotundi", which freely translated means "Rome holds
the reins of the world in its hands". It is a quotation from the
inscription on the front side of the Imperial 'Golden Bull' and it bears
witness to the fact that Charles tried to ensure that his imperial majesty
was emphasized also at Karlstejn.
Charles's throne stood in the oriel.
The architect J. Mocker had two new windows placed in the southern wall
of the oriel instead of reconstructing it, replacing the original fireplace
on the other side with a marble one. As its name implies, the Audience
Hall served for the reception of visitors and for various private and
political negotiations and meetings.
