"Cesky Sternberk" Cesky Sternberk by tophat30

As soon as you cross the bridge that leads you to the castle you'll get a magnificent view of the river and countryside below you. (Photo above ) There we met a trained local tour guide ( for a change she was very well mannered not like the rest of the czechs) and she gave us a tour around this gothic castle. We saw the dining room, the chapel, the smoking room, the hunters room and the bedroom among others. We even met in the stairway the present Mr Sternberk who still lived in the Castle. There was one particular room that has the family tree of the Sternberks painted on the wall with pictures hanged. Another room had a 'magic' mirror which is said that if you look at it you'll look ten years younger. Unluckily it didn't work for me :( . You'll also see near the chapel an unproportioned fresco of a knight . Rumours are that while the artist was halfway in completing this fresco noticed that when finished, it won't fit in the area planned so he was forced to scale down the rest of the painting. Last curiosity is the painting in the last room before the stairway. It shows a scene of a battle between two armies. The artist ( which I beleive was one of the Sternberks ) wished so much to be part of that battle that he painted himself as one of the soldiers. To point out which one of those hundreds was him, he painted himself as the only soldier with no helmet. Anyway, it was a very interesting tour which should not be missed and is only forty minutes away from Prague.

• Pros:Every room has it's own story
• Cons:You have to pay extra for the video camera