Castles Točník and Žebrák

The end of the rock ridge of Castle Hill, where the road ends and turns back (Točník), was inhabited by our ancestors already in prehistoric times. The inhabitants of that time dug a pond in the foreground as a water cistern. In the second half of the 14th century, a small hunting lodge stood on the highest point of the rock ridge, which included the present tower. After 1395, when the lower Žebrák castle burned down, Václav IV had the seat of the Czech and Roman kings built on this site. The new castle is the last type of Czech castle to have its defensive elements suppressed, favouring a residential purpose and standing on the boundary between a castle and a chateau (hradozámek). The castle was not conquered from the outside, but destroyed from the inside by local people who took refuge there from the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. Since the 18th century, the castle ruins have attracted visitors for romantic walks.