The Most Beautiful Castles, Palaces and Fortresses in the Czech Republic
7 places · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful castles, palaces and fortresses in the Czech Republic are Prague Castle, Český Krumlov Castle and Hluboká Castle. The list covers 7 castles, palaces and fortresses. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Few countries hold as many castles for their size as the Czech Republic. Bohemia and Moravia sat at the crossroads of Central Europe, ruled by kings and powerful noble families who built on rocky hilltops and river bends from the Middle Ages onward, and who later turned their fortresses into Renaissance and Baroque residences. Because the country escaped much of the destruction suffered by its neighbours in the twentieth century, an unusual number of these castles survive with their halls, furniture and gardens intact.
Prague Castle, founded in the ninth century, is among the largest castle complexes in the world, a walled city of palaces, courtyards and churches around the Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral. Karlštejn was founded in 1348 by Emperor Charles IV to guard the crown jewels and holy relics, and its Chapel of the Holy Cross is lined with gilded vaults and panel paintings by Master Theodoric. Český Krumlov Castle rises above a loop of the Vltava and keeps a Baroque theatre with its original stage machinery still in working order.
The later centuries brought romance and ruin. Hluboká was remade in the nineteenth century by the Schwarzenbergs in a white Tudor Gothic style inspired by Windsor Castle. Lednice, the summer seat of the Liechtensteins, received a Neo-Gothic remodelling and stands in a vast landscaped park with a minaret and follies. In the Bohemian Paradise, the ruined towers of Trosky crown two volcanic plugs, a silhouette visible for many kilometres.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prague Castle | Castle | |
| 2 | Český Krumlov Castle | Castle | |
| 3 | Hluboká Castle | Castle | |
| 4 | Kroměříž Castle | Palace | ✓ |
| 5 | Trosky Castle | Castle ruin | |
| 6 | Karlštejn Castle | Castle | |
| 7 | Lednice Castle | Palace |
01 Prague Castle
Pražský hrad
Czech Republic · 1.7 km from Prague50.090° N 14.400° E
Image by peter89ba from Pixabay What makes it extraordinary is that it is not one building but a millennium of them. The Romanesque Basilica of St George, the oldest church still standing inside the walls, sits a few steps from St Vitus Cathedral, a Gothic project begun under Charles IV in the 14th century and only finished in 1929. The Old Royal Palace holds Vladislav Hall, the vast late-Gothic hall that master builder Benedikt Rejt raised for King Vladislaus II after 1485.
Did you know? Golden Lane was built for Rudolf II's castle guards; Franz Kafka wrote in house No. 22, rented by his sister, from 1916 for about a year.
02 Český Krumlov Castle
Český Krumlov
Czech Republic · 21.4 km from České Budějovice48.813° N 14.315° E
Image by Pixel-Sepp from Pixabay The theatre is what sets Krumlov apart from other great Central European residences. It was first built in wood in 1680–1682 under Johann Christian I of Eggenberg and refitted with new stage machinery in 1765–1766 under Joseph Adam of Schwarzenberg. It survives with its auditorium, deep stage and the original wooden machinery for fast scene changes, and it counts among the best-preserved Baroque theatres in the world.
Did you know? Covering more than six hectares, the complex was the third most visited castle in the Czech Republic in 2014.
03 Hluboká Castle
Zámek Hluboká nad Vltavou
Czech Republic · 8 km from České Budějovice49.051° N 14.442° E
Michal Klajban · CC BY 4.0 The architect Franz Beer drew the plans in 1839 and ran the building site from 1840 until his death, and Franz Damasus Deworetzky finished the work by 1871. The result is one of the finest Romantic Neo-Gothic buildings in Central Europe: crenellated towers, pinnacles, oriel windows and battlements in a Tudor manner, set around courtyards on the edge of a steep drop. Inside, the Schwarzenbergs spared nothing.
Did you know? Its last private owner, Adolph Schwarzenberg, left for exile in 1939 to escape the Nazis, and the Gestapo seized the castle in 1940.
04 Kroměříž Castle
Czech Republic · 20.3 km from Zlín49.300° N 17.393° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Pudelek (Marcin Szala) · CC BY-SA 4.0 The palace has a long history of destruction and rebuilding. A late-Gothic residence built around 1500 was sacked by the Swedish army in 1643 during the Thirty Years' War. From 1664 Bishop Karl of Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn had it rebuilt in Baroque style by the Italian architect Filiberto Lucchese and, after his death, by Giovanni Pietro Tencalla.
05 Trosky Castle
Czech Republic · 33.3 km from Liberec50.516° N 15.231° E
Zdeněk Fiedler · CC BY-SA 3.0 In the 15th century Trosky was a Catholic stronghold during the Hussite Wars and was never taken by the Hussites, although it burned in 1428 and was besieged by the Taborites. From 1438 a robber knight, Kryštof Šov of Helfenburg, used it as a base to terrorise the surrounding countryside until the towns of the Lusatian League defeated him in 1444. King George of Poděbrady's army took the castle in 1469.
Did you know? Trosky is first mentioned in writing in 1396, and King Wenceslas IV was among its early owners.
06 Karlštejn Castle
Karlštejn
Czech Republic · 23.5 km from Prague49.940° N 14.188° E
Image by martinpalata from Pixabay The layout reads as a hierarchy. On the lowest terrace stands the palace, about 46 metres long, where the emperor lived on the second floor and the empress and her ladies above him. Higher up is the Marian Tower with the Church of the Assumption and the Chapel of St Catherine. 5 metres thick, encloses the Chapel of the Holy Cross, consecrated in 1365, where the treasures were kept.
Did you know? Among Theodoric's saints is St Maurice, painted as a Black African.
07 Lednice Castle
Zámek Lednice
Czech Republic48.801° N 16.806° E
Image by Simy27 from Pixabay The Liechtensteins held Lednice from the fourteenth century until 1945. The site began as a fortified manor guarding a river crossing; it became a Renaissance chateau in the late sixteenth century, and around 1700 a Baroque palace with a riding hall and stables linked to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Domenico Martinelli.
Did you know? The greenhouse was built with the English engineer Peter Hubert Desvignes, following the model of a London winter garden.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful castles, palaces and fortresses in the Czech Republic?
- On our list, Prague Castle ranks first, followed by Český Krumlov Castle and Hluboká Castle.
- Why was Karlštejn Castle built?
- Karlštejn was founded in 1348 by Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, as a place to keep the imperial regalia, the Bohemian crown jewels and his collection of holy relics.
- How big is Prague Castle?
- Prague Castle covers an area of about 70,000 square metres and is often cited as the largest ancient castle complex in the world. It has been the seat of Czech rulers since the ninth century and is today the official residence of the president.
- What are the two towers of Trosky Castle called?
- The taller tower is called Baba, the Old Woman, and the lower one Panna, the Maiden. Each stands on its own basalt volcanic plug, which is why the ruin has such a distinctive outline.
- How many castles, palaces and fortresses are on this list in the Czech Republic?
- The list covers 7 castles, palaces and fortresses.