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The history...
KARLSTEJN CASTLE
Karlstejn
Castle
occupies a wholly exceptional position among Czech castles. lt did not
originate as an administrative centre of the local estate, or as a representative
royal seat, but was intended to serve as a place of safe-keeping for
relics, including the imperial coronation jewels. lt was named after
its founder Charles IV, Czech and German king and Roman Emperor.
The
building of the castle was a part of Charles's wide cultural
and political aims connected wiith raising the hereditary Czech kingdom,
which Charles began to realize in 1348. On 10 June, 1348 the foundation
stone of Karlstejn was laid by his close friend and adviser, Arnost
of Pardubice, Prague's archbishop. Probably no other castle in Bohemia
or Europe of that time was founded under such solemn circumstances,
a fact which bears witness to the great importance which Charles IV
attached to Karlstejn Castle.
Tradition
has it that Karlstejn was the place of safe-keeping of the imperial
and Czech coronation jewels, but in actual fact the two coronation treasures
were kept together for a very short period in the 15th century during
the Hussite wars. However, this was not the founder's original aim.
Already frorn the times of Charlemagne several rulers and popes had
been interested in accumulating holy relics. Charles IV, who was brought
up at the French court in an atmosphere of piety and respect for everything
holy, wanted to concentrate the most valuable relics which he had acquired
at Karlstejn. To these he added the imperial coronation treasure, also
understood as relics at Charles's time.
Shortly
after the founding of Karlstejn Castle Charles
IV was crowned at Aachen for the second time as Roman king and
in March 1350 the imperial coronation jewels, including other holy relics,
were brought to Prague. They were no doubt meant to be kept in the newly
built part of Prague called Na Karlove, the counterpart of Prague Castle,
where the Czech coronation jewels were housed in St. Wenceslas's Chapel.
However, the king obviously changed his original plan and had the imperial
jewels placed in Karlstejn Castle as a part of the imperial holy relics.
Every year, mainly on "Blessed Sacrament Day", they were taken
from here to the ceremony which took place in present-day Charles Square,
formerly known as the Cattle Market, in the New Town of Prague. Here
the jewels were solemnly displayed to the wide public and annual pilgrimages
were made to Prague on this occasion. This feast involving the display
of the jewels thus enhanced the renown of Prague, the capital of the
Czech Kingdom, as well as the glitter of Charles's imperial majesty.
Apart
from the purpose of the castle, its architecture and interior
decoration also make Karlstejn exceptional. Its building type and the
systern of the arrangement of its individual parts have no like. The
basic project of the castle counted with a very effective composition
characterized by the gradation of the various architectural elements
from the well tower to the dominant of the building as a whole - the
Great Tower with the Chapel of the Holy Rood. lt was just here that
the group of holy relics, including the imperial coronation treasure,
was deposited. The graded scheme of the castle composition was based
on the symbolism of the Holy Mount of Jerusalem and its temple. According
to medieval cosmography Jerusalem was considered to be the exact centre
of the world. The way of ascent to Karlstejn Castle was conceived as
an earthly pilgrimage to the remote mountain. It was a liturgical pilgrimage
symbolically serving as a substitute for the holy places in Palestine.
The way of ascent led pilgrims, including the Emperor, to the symbols
of eternal salvation in several phases, to the individual, mutually
connected shrines. The first were situated in the Imperial Palace, others
in the so-called Marian Tower and the most important in the Great Tower.
