Jindřichův Hradec Castle

The original castle was probably built in the 10th century on a rampart above the confluence of the Hamerský potok and the Nežárka. It was first mentioned in 1220 and referred to as "Novum castrum". The owner was Henry I of Neuhaus, the founder of the Witigonian branch of the Lords of Neuhaus. The Czech place name attribute Jindřichův, used from 1410 onwards, goes back to him. The oldest parts of the castle (keep, Romanesque-Gothic palace with the Holy Spirit Chapel) were built by 1259. The German-inscribed wall paintings were created in 1338. They show a comprehensive cycle on the legend of St. George as well as the founder Ulrich III of Neuhaus and the Neuhaus commander. A gallery of coats of arms depicts 19 noble lords who participated in the crusades of the order to the Prussians and Lithuania between 1322 and 1337.

In the 16th century, the castle was converted into a representative Renaissance castle under Joachim of Neuhaus and his son Adam II, and expanded with the New Building. The late Gothic palace became part of the so-called Spanish Wing. Particularly noteworthy are the arcades connecting the building parts, as well as the Rondel completed in 1596, which, with its magnificent vault and gilded relief decoration, is one of the main works of Bohemian Renaissance. The conversion was carried out according to designs by the Italian architects Antonio Ericer and Baldassare Maggi. After the death of the last male descendant of the Lords of Neuhaus, Joachim Ulrich, his younger sister Lucie Otilie, who had been married to Wilhelm Slawata since 1602, inherited his possessions. His descendants bequeathed the castle and lordship of Neuhaus to the Lords Czernin of Chudenitz in 1693. A Baroque fountain was built in the inner courtyard between 1688 and 1696. In 1773, a fire destroyed large parts of the castle.

Eugen Czernin of Chudenitz, who rediscovered the St. George cycle in 1838, earned merits for the reconstruction and preservation of the castle. He moved the Czernin archive to Neuhaus Castle, which also houses the archives of the families of Neuhaus and Slawata and is the second largest noble archive in Bohemia. In 1945, the Czernin family was dispossessed. The castle, estate, and archive became state property. The castle was extensively renovated between 1976 and 1993.

With its architecture and valuable interior, which also includes a painting gallery, Jindřichův Hradec Castle is one of the most important cultural objects in South Bohemia. Despite multiple conversions in various stylistic periods, the overall complex of the castle presents an architecturally harmonious overall picture. In the painting gallery, the painting of the Madonna of Jindřichův Hradec, created in 1460, is particularly significant. The cycle of paintings from 1338 depicting the legend of St. George in a room next to the castle chapel is also of art-historical interest.