Castles & ruins 21: Pernštejn, CZ

 

In wooded hills of Moravia stretched out as a spaghetti is the castle of Pernštejn (=Bärenstein in Czech pronunciation =Bear' castle). It is “built in” the rock more than built on it, in some places rock used as walls as high as the 3.floor. Thanks to the hills the castle is not visible until you stand right in front of it. The place is so narrow that it is hardly possible to bring artillery here and any army is cramped for attack but is easy target for the castle defense – so the castle was never conquered.

The mythical founder of the castle was an ordinary man Venava who lived in the woods tilling earth and making coal. But he had an annoyance in his simple life: the great hordes of wild bison were destroying all his works. 

Finally Venava could not bear it any longer, he went to the fields caught the bison herd leader with his bare hands and put an iron ring through his nostrils. He dragged the animal to the market of Brno town where everyone was amazed by the beast size and strength. Even the king come to see the huge animal and its handler. The king bought the bison and gave Venava noble rang and right to have coat of arms. Venava choose to have his bison as a family crest and same sign is on his castle.

The reality is more boring as usual: the first mention of the castle is from 1220-s court proceedings where castle owners were accused of robbing traders. The thing is the owners of Pernstejn by the same name were known for it: they actually made the whole “mafia” net having Pernstejn family members in every court in the region. 

Pernstejns were in religion as well (you need to diversify the business, right?) they were local monastery abbots and had higher ranks in both catholic and protestant churches, so family was covered from all sides. Having this Pernstejns built considerable wealth and left Pernstejn castle for palaces in Prague and Vienna. The castle was not forgotten though it become a hunting lodge of the family.

Pernstejns were well known all over Europe too, for example Vratislav Pernstejn married Spanish duchess Marie Manriquez de Lara who brought with her doll of baby Jesus which is now known as “Pražské Jezulátko” (Infant Jesus of Prague) - you can see it in Church of Our Lady Victorious in Mala Strana of Prague.

Another family member - Alžběta Isabela († 1610) married in 1578 Albrecht I. Fürstenberg later their direct descendants become Windsors - the royal family of Great Britain.

In 18 century Pernstejn family runs out of its fortune and the castle, as most of their possessions was sold to pay debts.

Then it was going from one owner to the other and finally was nationalized in 1945, today Pernstejn castle is owned by Czech state and open to public as a museum.

The castle has its own legend of “White lady” (of course): it is said that one of the castle owners of old times was under siege in the castle and decided to surrender. While he was discussing with enemies on capitulation conditions, his older daughter run into the meeting in full armor and battle cry: “We will never give up!” So father grabbed his valiant daughter and cut her throat in an instant. Since then she was seeing in the castle as a ghost, and when she was wearing white gloves that meant something good would happened to the family: new healthy baby born for example; when she was seeing wearing black gloves – then death and disease would come. 

But the White lady herself never harm anyone but once: at some party in the castle one of the knights boasted that he will kiss the White Lady of Pernstejn castle with no hesitation at all! And that was first time she appeared in front of so many people and come to the knight. He turn pale in terror but kissed her still – and fell down cold dead.

The castle might look familiar to you: it was in many movies, not only kids fairytales but in “Wanted” or “Van Helsing” and some vampires series and what not.

From above: Pernštejn, CZ

castle web:  Hrad Pernštejn