Czech Republic: July 18: Jindrichuv Hradec Town and Castle

The very cute town of Jindrichuv Hradec is only about a half hour from where we're staying. We had no idea how cute it would it would be. They just have a big a grocery store where we could load up. It also happens to have one of the castles we've been excited to see. 

More of the cute town square. We ate at the pizzeria on the right. There's a lot of surprisingly good pizza in this region of the world. There are a lot of wood fired pizza places. 

We took the back way to get the castle, accidentally. We were trying to find the entrance, but it's so big, we couldn't find it. 

At least we got to walk by this pretty little river. I think it used to be part of the moat system.

It does connect to the lake that sits right next to the town square.

The outside view of the famous Rondel. More on that later.

Map of the castle.

The inside courtyard.

The boys pouring gravel over their heads. They're boys.

Nice interior, with antlers.

Love these pendant lights!

We toured the Renaissance wing which is quite well preserved. 

These are the shields of the Hradec family which built and owned the castle. They began building it in the 12th century and just kept adding to it. Only 2 other families owned it before it became part of the Communist government. 

This is a table in the music room.

The grand piano seen here is one that was played by Mozart. One of the people who once owned this castle took lessons from him in Vienna.

Napoleon slept in this bed.

Boys playing in the courtyard.

Each of these stairs is a single piece of wood.

This is the Rondel. It's a concert hall with perfect acoustics. Below it is where the orchestra played so as not to disturb the high class people partying in the Rondel itself. There's a hole in the floor that they put a vase on top of so the music would come through the hole and amplify. The room itself is super Rococco. It's totally over the top decorated. I wasn't able to take a photo, they don't allow it.

More moat.