Castle of Forgotten Mysteries
Try to remember the last time you heard about the Castle Zbiroh. Was it in connection with Vačkař's famous song, „Remembrance of Zbiroh“? The communist regime and the town of Zbiroh were strictly off limits throughout the period of Communist regime.
Castle of the Railway King
The first mention of the Castle comes in 1195, when the Sulislavics lived here, and later we see that Charles IV, Zikmund of Luxemburg and Rudolph II came to the Castle to hunt. Rudolph II established a tree nursery here and some trees remain here today. The site was finally sold by Franz Josef I to the Prussian industrialist Strossberg, “the Railway King”.
He completely reconstructed Zbiroh and mixed Neo-Renaissance with Neo- Gothic together with pompous railway station facades. However, he did noty enjoy the results for long – during one of his business trips to Russia his competition arranged for him to be kidnapped and locked away until his company went bankrupt. The Castle was then bought by the Colloredo-Mansfeld family.
The great ear of the SS
The famous site was illuminated by the genius of Alfons Mucha. More than 80% of his oil paintings originated here, including his entire Slavic Epic. The famous Czech writer Fríňa Šrámek also wrote his Stříbrný vítr (Silver Wind) here.
Huge silic rocks veined with semi-precious jasper on which is Zbiroh Castle built on. „The German Nazis discovered after the wars that jasper perfectly reflects radio waves,“ explains Jaroslav Pácha. „That is why the SS forces evicted the Colloredo-Mansfelds and set up their secret headquarters for monitoring radio traffic. Their instruments spied on the whole world from here!“
After the was, the Communist Czechoslovak Army continued to use the unique attributes of jasper “amplifiers". They stationed the large Tamara radio-locator here and tracked the movements of the “invisible” American Stealth aircraft for the armies of the Warsaw Pact.
It is said that when president Havel made his first diplomatic visit to the United States of America, he was asked, „What are you going to do with those instruments that spy on our planes?“ said the Castle owner. “Neither Havel nor his advisors had any idea what they were talking about. It was explained to them, however, and at the beginning of the nineties the Tamara disappeared.” With it disappeared the most obvious reason for the secrecy surrounding Zbiroh. During the State Restitution process, the Castle was returned to Colloredo-Mansfeld family, but they sold it back to the Army. It went unmaintained until it fell into the hands of the town of Zbiroh. Finally, last year the Castle was sold to the private firm Gastro Zofin, which immediately began restoration of the most significant features of the property.
Garnets and 6 metres of concrete
As it turned out, the Castle was never thoroughly explored. After nine centuries of existence,, a number of its mysterious aspects were unvailed for historical research.
“There is a large system of underground corridors and tombs, where Czech rebels were imprisoned before their execution on Old Town Square in 1621,” says Jaroslav Pacha. “But many of the entrances to these tunnels were filled by the SS with such a thick layer of concrete that we haven’t been able to pierce through them even with a drill 6 metres long."
Why? The well offers the same conundrum. The Germans filled it about halfway. Their abjuctive is unclear. “In my opinion there are only two possibilities,” judges the Castle owner. “Over hundreds of years the rock under the castle had been pierced with countless tunnels. The Germans either wanted to protect something that they had hidden there with the concrete, or they wanted to prevent anyone from entering the castle from underground.”
Does Zbiroh have a secret Chamber of Amber? Jaroslav Pácha denies this wild speculation. „The well was explored in 1965 by army scuba-divers and all they found was a wooden chest full of documents.“ he explains. „They traced it back to Černá Lake in the Šumava Mountains and never returned to exploring the well.“
What exactly that wooden chest contained is officially unknown. The odds are that it was SS secret war records. More recent explorations have turned up similar documents.
“Before Germans left the Castle, they threw into the well chests of historic weapons,” says Pácha. Probably they wanted to pull them out and sell them later. They threw in soil and rubbish over the crates. On top of that they threw boxes of documentl. Finally they tossed in four hand grenades – we’ve found their pins.”
Below us are the four Nuselský bridges
The grenades destroyed the documents, and water destroyed the rare weapons, almost all of which came from the Napoleonic wars. But how could water reach the guns, buried about 80 meters below the apparent bottom of the well? The explanation is simple. The army diverted waste water there from their barracks in the courtyard of the Castle. The SS soldiers hadn’t anticipated this.
Archaeologists have only reached halfway in to the fill, and they have brought out about ten meters of weapons, documents, and their containers. The new owners of the Castle would like to restore and exhibit whatever findings can be salvaged.
When the well has been thoroughly searched and cleaned out, they plan to illuminate it and add it to the guided tours. Imagine the view from four times the height of the Nuselský Bridge!
We have just opened
As of 18th June the Castle of Zbiroh is open to the public for the first time in its history. Visitors may admire the carefully renovated structure and its interior (though only part of the Castle has been restored, while the remaining restorations will go on for years) and its newly created exhibitions.
The exhibition called „Beauties and Secrets of the Czech Republic“ includes a collection of objects from the time of the Premysl dynasty to the Secession as well as accompanying music and film. Two rooms are dedicated to Alfons Mucha: the smaller one represents his work as the Grand Master of a Masonic lodge, while the Great Hall, where he painted dozens of works including the famous Slavic Epic, is used for concerts or single exhibitions.
The second half of the current installations shows the life of the nobility in various historic epochs.
