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The Marian Tower with the Church of Our Lady...
THE TREASURY
Two interiors
of the castle treasury are now situated on the first floor of the Marian
Tower. In accordance with the contemporary opinions of historians who
think that Charles's private treasure house may have been located on
the second floor of the tower the interiors on the first floor were
chosen for the presentation of preserved articles whose character designates
them a place just in the treasury.
The
first room contains a unique group of church vestments - chasubles of
the 15th and 16th centuries, all richly decorated with embroidery. It
can be presumed that these garments belonged to members of the Karlstejn
chapter. A tall show-case contains a number of articles of a liturgical
and also secular character from the collections of the castle. Apart
from monstrances and chalices of the 17th and 18th centuries, embroidered
crowns for a small statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus and
precious stones from the Chapel of the Holy Rood attention is captured
by a small bell on tiny feet which according to B. Balbin was procured
by Charles IV. It was allegedly situated in the Chapel of St. Catherine
and had "a silvery sound like that of a cymbal". The large
head of a crocodile placed im the lower part of the show-case is presented
in the inventory of the castle of 1515 as the head of the dragon allegedly
killed by St. George. As the dragon's head the skull of the crocodile
was situated among the articles in the Chapel of the Holy Rood.
The Karlstejn treasure also includes an ancient gemma which once formed
the decoration of a coping stone in the Chapel of St. Catherine. The
gemma with the head of Medusa dates in the period from the late 3rd
to the early 4th century. It can be presumed Charles acquired it in
France as a Christian relic and deliberately had it set in the coping
stone of his private chapel.
A highly valuable group of articles from the time of Charles IV is now
also housed as the so-called Karlstejn treasure in the collections of
the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. It found its way to this institution
in a complicated way during the epoch of the first Czechoslovak republic.
This group, which contains nearly four hundred vessels, gilded and hammered
small-sized bowls, enamel bowls and silver cups, bears witness to the
high standard and culture of life in Charles IV's era.
The interior of the treasure house also provides information about the
most valuable parts of the castle, provided with wall and panel paintings
from the time of Charles IV, the Church of Our Lady and in particular
the Chapel of the Holy Rood in the Great Tower. Due
to the fact that visitors have only the minimum possibility of gaining
access to these parts of the castle several articles ranking among the
original furnishings of the Chapel of the Holy Rood and other interiors
have been transferred to the treasury and treasure house. On
display in the treasury are thus transfers of wall paintings from the
staircase cycle in the Great Tower. These wall paintings decorated the
walls of the Holy Rood and portray scenes from the life of ss. Vaclav
(Wenceslas) and Ludmila, Czech saints and the provincial patrons. These
themes were also treated by the painter Sequens during the reconstruction
of the castle in the late 19th century and are partly exhibited in the
treasury.
