Konopiste

a brief history: 20 miles south of Prague, this castle was originally founded as a gothic fortress guarding the nearby town of Benesov. the most important owner of the castle was the archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Este. he was the successor to the Austro-Hungarian throne whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 became the trigger for World War I.

our group was given a tour through the private chambers where the archduke and his family lived. the hallways are filled with pictures from his travels and paintings which he inherited. he was an avid hunter and killed over 300,000 animals throughout his life. so the walls were lined with thousands of mounted animals.

this castle was one of the first establishments to have running water and electricity in the czech territory, unfortunately the archduke was killed before he was able to complete all the renovations.

he had three children. one girl and two boys. they could speak five languages. the daughter was a talented artist and was creating incredible works by age 12. you could really tell that Franz Ferdinand was devoted to his children and wife. he always carried pictures of them on his travels which was found in his suitcase from the Sarajevo trip that was hidden within the castle for many years after his death. however he was also willing to suffer humiliation to marry the woman he wanted to.

anyways, i found this tour to be one of more interesting ones that ive been on thus far. this sight is very touristy, however we were able to do a special tour which is not open to the public daily.

unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside of the castle so i was not able to get pictures of a lot of the more interesting things. however i did manage to take one in a hallway.