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These ground floor rooms served
various purposes...
Cervenka
On
completing their tour of inspection of Karlstejn Castle visitors can
make their way to the interiors of the former prison which, similarly
as Cervenka, is considered to date in the rate 16th century.
In 1999 the interiors below the Marian
Tower, called Cervenka from the 16th century, were made accessible to
visitors for the first time in the history of the castle. These ground
floor rooms served various purposes in the course of the history of
the castle - for example, as storage cellars, pantries and later even
as a prison. The destinies of the prisoners are documented by numerous
small paintings and other illustrations on the walls. The names of some
of them are known to us from history.
The small exposition in the first entrance room therefore contains
several door locks and the castle keys as well as large manacles and
fetters which have been preserved at Karlstejn for a number of centuries
now.
According to the data of certain older historians a special legend is
connected with the manacles and fetters. B. Balbin informs us that these
articles were used on guilty persons in the prison in The Little Quarter
in Prague. When in the year 932 (?) the body of St. Vaclav was transported
round it from Boleslav, the cart with the body came to a halt and no
one could move it until all the prisoners had been freed.
Another similar legend has it that the manacles fell from the legs of
an innocent person who had been condemned when the body of St. Vaclav
passed by the prison. Thus the heavy fetters and manacles housed in
Karlstejn Castle have rather the character of relics and were definitely
not used on prisoners at Karlstejn.
