Carolyn's Various Travels: Bouzov Castle

After the caves we went to a local castle. I wasn't sure if this was going to resemble some of the 'hunting lodge' castles I had visited in Prague previous, or would be more 'castle like'. It was a classic fairy tale castle! Two gates, a moat (dry), a draw bridge, and beautiful tall towers. I would have liked to have explored the whole thing from top to bottom, but of course that was not a choice, although we did get to see a fair amount of it.

From the castle website: Romantic castle built in the 13th and 14th century. Until 1696 it was owned in turn by members of Czech and Moravian families, then the estate with the castle bought by the Teutonic Knights. Since 1945, it has been owned by the state. In 1999 it was declared a national monument. The castle is fully furnished and equipped paintings, art objects, historical and custom-made furniture. Today's appearance of a typical romantic seat with battlements, bay windows, loopholes and gargoyles, the castle was extensively reconstructed in 1895-1910. There are two unique functional drawbridges and portcullis.

This is taken standing inside the first courtyard after entering the first gate.

This emergency exit map gives you an idea of the layout and scope of the rooms. You can see a picture below of the notable small spiral stairs on the center left of the map.

The inner courtyard. It had a wide (8 ft diameter) open well that had provided for the whole castle. It was about 40 m deep.

A view into the dry moat.

A guest room. Many of the doors had these pretty door frames.

Servants dining hall (next to the kitchen)

Functioning kitchen with huge bread ovens and a giant rotisserie spit. In the corner there was a dumb waiter to move the food up to levels to the master's dining hall.