Valdstejn Off The Beaten Path Tips by globetrott

Trosky castle seen in a distance

Valdstejn castle is not far from Hruba Skala, and here on my picture you may see the great sandstone-rocks that made the "Bohemian Paradise" such a special landscape.
In the back of my picture is Trosky Castle, that was built on 2 rocks.

A lot of Great sculptures

When leaving the castle again, take a closer look for the great sculptures on the bridge.
All national saints of Bohemia have a statue there on the bridge.

the spiral stairs

Do not forget to walk down the spiral-stairs in the "bridge-building"
Great paintings of local artists are on display there and may also be bought as a souvenir.
And last, BUT not least, these big halls underneath the terrace are really cooool places, even in such a hot summer like in july 2003.

a castle on the rocks

When you walk around below the castle this is what you see !
Just imagine the effort that was done in order to carry up all these stones, when building the castle.

the Wallenstein portrait

Inside one of the rooms of the castle you may see this painting showing
Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein
who lived 1583 - 1634
He was the most famous polititian, strategist and general in the Thirty Year' War

the castle interior

I am glad, I did NOT see any signs saying "no photography"
Maybe it is less strict here than in other castles, maybe it was just the fact, that I always tried to make my pics in a moment, nobody watched me. ;-)
In some cases it might be simply forbidden, in order to guarantee a bribe to the guards !

the castle-kitchen

It is always great to see the old traditional kitchens in the castles.
There were plenty of servants, but also plenty of people to be served all at the same time - certainly not easy at all for cooks in the good old times, with just an oven like this one...

the coat of arms

Some of the rooms show the coat of arms of all branches of the dynasty on the walls.
The furniture is rather simple, but besides of cold winter-nights without a modern central heating, I guess living there would not be bad at all.

And in order to keep all of the ovens burning, they also got plenty of servants...

lovely interior

You may walk around freely on your own. In some of the rooms you will see guards, also giving a few explanations upon demand and for a small tip.
Do NOT expect them to speak any foreign language, some do, like the ladies at the ticket-box, but the guards normally just might give standard-explanations, but are not able to answer questions.

The living rooms of the castle

The living-rooms are in the very last part of the castle. This part of the castle was partly adapted and modernized after the castle was sold by the Wallenstein-family to Graf von Aehrenthal in 1822.