#Karlstejn Castle

[allthingseurope]

Karlstejn Castle, Czech Republic (by bialobrody)

[amazingczechia]

Karlštejn Castle (hrad Karlštejn) is a large medieval castle located in the town of the same name near the capital city Prague. Karlštejn Castle is very popular among tourists and it is a perfect place for a day trip when you're staying in Prague.

See more: https://www.amazingczechia.com/sights/karlstejn-castle/

[tremontino]

Karlstejn Castle in Prague.

[home-decor-design]

10 tiny towns in the Czech Republic with an interesting history

Almost every seemingly secluded and tiny corner of the Czech Republic actually hides wonders - breathtaking historical buildings and attractions. We have prepared ten picturesque Czech towns that can be a real find for a traveler.

Cesky Krumlov

Possessing a special energy, Cesky Krumlov, despite its rather modest size, would be hard pressed to call it a single-use city. Travelers admit that with its leisurely rhythm and ancient charm, the town makes you fall in love the first time and makes you think about returning here again and again. By the way, the most beautiful and interesting part of the city territory, the historical center, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so its significance is difficult to overestimate. Key Attractions: Krumlov Castle, historical center, Church of St. Vitus

Photo by - prostovisa

Kunta Gora

And this city is a real treasure trove of a wide variety of historical attractions - from a Gothic temple to a medieval silver mine. But, perhaps, one of the most interesting places in this region is the ossuary, located in the near suburb of Kutna Hora - Sedlec. In fact, this frightening and at the same time attractive attraction is a church entirely created from the bones of thousands of people. Every year, thousands of tourists come to the Czech Republic to see one of the largest such buildings with their own eyes. Key Attractions: Ossuary, Cathedral of St. Barbara, Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist

Photo by - badenguide

Olomouc

Olomouc is often (and I must say, quite deservedly) ranked among the Czech cities that can easily compete with Prague itself in the fight for the traveler’s attention. It is not surprising, because in its small territory there is such a significant concentration of historical attractions that the capital would be envious. Just by starting a walk around the city, you can find something almost everywhere worthy of a place on your Instagram - the local baroque squares and fountains are extremely photogenic. Key Attractions: Column of the Holy Trinity, St. Wenceslas Cathedral, Church of St. Mauritius

Photo by zakavto

Turnov

In addition to boasting a rich and eventful history, Turnov is also fortunate to be located in a region with breathtaking natural scenery, and it is no coincidence that it is often chosen as a starting point for independent travel in Czech Bohemia. Walking around the town, you just need to look around - everything here is beautiful and exciting. And also, for the information of lovely ladies, this is where the Czech pomegranate factory is located, where you can buy stone products at reasonable prices. Key attractions: Old town, ancient Church of St. Nicholas

Photo by - miraxtravel

Karlstein

Karlštejn is the name of a luxurious fortress that should take its rightful place on our list. The castle was prudently built on a high cliff covered with greenery, which gives it even more charm. At the foot of this hill lies a tiny settlement of the same name. Key Attractions: Karlstejn fortress  

Photo by - miraxtravel

Trebon

Treboň is not only the cradle of the country's rich historical heritage, but also the birthplace of the best creators of local history: composer Josef Tribenze, as well as Czech football star Karel Poborský. Key Attractions: Church of St. Elizabeth, Trebon Castle, ramparts

Photo by - narvikk

Marianske Lazne

Guests from all over the world flock here in an inexhaustible stream - primarily to drink water from local sources and improve their health. The healing power of this place was once experienced by Chopin, Wagner, Goethe (their house-museums and monuments can be visited in the city today) and many others. A pleasant bonus for vacationers has always been the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this cozy garden city. Key Attractions: singing fountain, house-museum "Monument to Chopin", monument to Goethe

Photo by - marianskelazne

Cheb

By the way, the same Goethe was clearly partial to another tiny pearl of the Czech Republic - the town of Cheb in the region of the same name. Its streets are remembered even more - life has been in full swing here since the times of the Holy Roman Empire. In its modern form, Cheb is a calm and prim, but culturally quite developed town with well-preserved examples of buildings from the early Middle Ages. Key Attractions: Imperial Palatinate, St. George's Square, St. Nicholas Church

Photo by traveler

Ceske Budejovice

This town became popular many centuries ago, immediately after its founding, because it was here that many European trade routes converged: both land and water (the city is washed by two rivers). All this, of course, contributed to its systematic development in various styles. Travelers can still enjoy the fruits of urban development of those times by taking a walk around Ceske Budejovice. Key Attractions: Samson statue in the city square, Town Hall, Black Tower, Dominican monastery

Photo by diez

Beneshov

And this neat town, in its rather long history, has survived many turmoil, raids, wars and even arson. However, by some miracle, the town still survived and today happily welcomes guests, showing them the surviving sights. In addition, in the immediate vicinity of Benesov there is perhaps the most beautiful castle in the Czech Republic - the luxurious Konopiste, made in the Gothic style. Key Attractions: Church of St. Nicholas, Church of St. Anne

Photo by - pragagid Read the full article

[angeliqueshelleyartist]

Light and Shadows

Iconoclast

“Someone who destroyed religious sculptures and paintings“ https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/iconoclast

The purpose of this image was for a more technical piece of work with a focus on the design of the lighting.

In my development sketches I wanted to use a light source as an actual device.  When creating the sketch of the noir -style gentleman I found that I liked the idea of the backlighting and how it can be used to create a strong atmosphere while obscuring the details that I usually get carried away with when creating my artwork.

It is well known that in theatrical lighting, colour is used to affect the emotion, but I feel that it is often overlooked that the absence of light can be a more powerful atmospheric tool than saturating the stage in red for example.

From research into backlighting and the power of the absence of light I found an interesting article about a throne room for the Bohemian King at Karlstejn Castle. King Charles IV placed his throne in between two large windows because he “liked to be in shadow so no one could see his facial expressions or read his emotions”.

Karlštejn Castle

This inspired me to try a more conceptual take on this idea and I swapped the, orderly, luxurious Gothic feel for an aggressive scrap-punk image featuring a young warlord atop a throne of debris. The Gothic chapel that she rules from has been desecrated with graffiti, lit by a black light neon-crucifix, unapologetically repurposed from the outside of the chapel and placed in a manner that suggests a downward course.

I used Maya to create the nave of the chapel and to help me align the camera for an appropriate composition. I settled on using the field of view of the camera to create a wide-angle effect, allowing for the character to remain prominent while capturing the scrap-pile throne and the windows all together. I used assets of the statues and guns from Maya's built-in content browser, and created the car seat with simple block modelling and then going to mesh>smooth. The windows were created with symmetry enabled and moving vertices on a flat plane into the appropriate shape and then extruding both inwards and backwards in steps.

I added a directional light for the windows and a point light for the interior but ultimately just used the perspective from Maya and doing all of the lighting on my own.

The statues by the throne were scrapped as they made the scene too busy.

The final 3D Underlay

I tried several different poses before settling on the final one.

Pose 4 was my starting figure which I refined gradually until I achieved the desired look. Pose 3 looked more elegant, but it was too sexy and gave pin-up vibes. I felt pose 1 captured most the relaxed and confident look I was going for.

To create the image, I used a variety of techniques including photo-bashing, painting and many passes to achieve the colour, light and shadows.

The warlord herself, although sitting and beckoning a subject toward her with comfortable confidence, has skillfully considered and manipulated the available lighting to mask her young age. Like the displays of a cobra or a peacock, she has been able to elevate her audience’s perception into one of intimidation, aggression and dominance.

I am particularly proud of the windows. The ones in the final image are not photographs but are perspective-warped scans of ones traditionally drawn with white pencils on black paper. I am happy with how I combined them with a photo-texture of a Gothic wall to create the back of the chapel.

When placing the dobermans, I initially had one on each side to re-enforce symmetry but decided that it looked too staged and that dogs would sit together so placed them on the left. I like the ‘holy’ feel that the godrays and bloom around the dogs provides.

I was aware of the possibly controversy of using religious iconography in potentially insensitive ways but felt that this was part of the story I wanted to tell in this image.

I needed to use purple again despite using it heavily in prior artworks due to the requirement in my scene of a blacklight. The colour green was used as it is complimentary, and together with the composition elements I have used I feel that it still has strong thumbnail presence despite the focal point intentionally residing in darkness.

I also had to spend a lot of time pushing down the contrast of non-focal-point elements such as the Dobermans to ensure that the girl remained the focal point in what turned out to be quite a detailed and possibly busy image.

When I converted the image to grey scale, a lot of the brightness that was created though saturation was lost. I added some more bloom and lighting to her figure to improve the contrast.

Photo-bashing Resources:

Image Links:

Cottonbro Studio. (n/d). White dust and black background. [Photograph]. https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-dust-and-black-background-9665216/: Pexels.

Demicoli, E. (2021). 2021. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-and-green-houses-under-blue-sky-during-daytime-HGCqL-tRcac: Unsplash.

Fewings, B. (2021). brown and white wooden wall. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-and-white-wooden-wall-4mhc6eQuWbQ: unsplash.

Freepik. (n/d). Close up on film texture details. [Photograph]. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-film-texture-details_25054272.htm#query=lens%20dirt&posi: Freepik.

Kozakova, A. (2019). black and brown Doberman dog sitting on shore. [Photograph]. https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-brown-doberman-dog-sitting-on-shore-x1tdpoFDt1c: Unsplash.

Private Prague Guide. (n/d). Karlštejn Castle. [Online].  Available at: https://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/karlstejn-castle/

textures.com. (n/d). ORNAMENTSARCHES0052. [Photograph]. https://www.textures.com/download/OrnamentsArches0052/47140: textures.com.

[nitatu]

We had an amazing day-trip to Karlstejn! We visited the castle, had a nice lunch in the 'spider' resto and hiked to the lom velká amerika.

[dbunicorn]

Karlstejn castle, history, religion, and light filtering through beautiful back country roads. I've really enjoyed this trip. 🙏

[umichenginabroad]

Week 3: Karlstejn and first midterm!

Dobrý den! I had a very relaxing, chill, and fun weekend. On Friday we went with CEA to visit Karlstejn Castle! We all met at the Prague hlavní nádraž to get a bus that would take us to the castle. It was around an hour away, but was sooo gorgeous. When we got there, we did a tour of the inside of the castle, and got to walk around the little town. We then ate lunch, and it was really good! They gave us typical Czech food! After lunch, we did a hike and saw a beautiful view of the castle. During our hike, it started to rain which was a bit sad but we still had a great time! When we got back from our day at the castle, I fell asleep and had one of the best naps ever!!

Even though I really wanted to travel this weekend (my friends were going to Salzburg) I decided to stay in Prague and explore the city a bit on my own. Budgeting is very important, especially when you go on trips since you need to pay so much stuff like the hotel/hostal, food, activities, transportation, gift, etc. Since I had already gone to Berlin last weekend and I am going to travel this weekend, I decided it was best to stay. On saturday, I went to the farmers market that is by the river. It is there every Saturday from early in the morning until around 2pm. I got some strawberries (which were very good), and kept on looking at all the cute stands. There was a flea market with clothes and jewelry, pastry stands, fruits and vegetables, cheese, fresh pasta, fresh juice and so much more! I spent a lot of my time there window shopping. After that, I decided to treat myself to a nice lunch, so I went to an amazing restaurant called San Carlo. I 100% recommend it, it had the best pizza. I then decided to walk around the old town and I ended up stumbling upon the Franz Kafka rotating head. I then went toward the river again and made my way back to the apartment. The next day was also very chill since I did grocery shopping for the next few days (btw the pastries here are extremely cheap and it is becoming an issue because I eat too much), laundry, and I worked on my homework.

This week I had my first midterm here in Prague. It was for the Golden City of Prague class. The exam was not bad at all since everything that we were told to review was on the exam: if you studied and went over the concepts you would ace the test. Even though we had an exam, we still visited places everyday in class. This week we went to the National Museum, Mucha Museum, Wenceslas Square, and the Trade Fair Palace. 

A tip that I have for you guys is to buy a monthly pass for the metro and tram. A lot of my friends had been getting stopped by ticket inspectors, and some of them did not have the pass and had to pay a fine of around 50 USD. A ticket inspector stopped me one time on the way to class, but I had luckily purchased a ticket and activated it so I was fine. It is cheaper to get a monthly pass than getting fined (the monthly pass is around 30 USD).

This weekend I am going to Poland and I am super excited! We are going to explore the town where we are staying in and we are also going to Auschwitz. 

I’ll let you guys know how my trip and next week goes!

Mariana Pardo

Biomedical Engineering

Engineering in Prague

[kaijumaker]

Ladybird kaiju. - spotted in Castle Karlstejn (Czech Republic).

[lahilden]

Karlstejn Castle

Karlstejn Castle is located in Czechia. The Gothic castle was built from 1348 to 1365 as a stronghold by the Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV. The castle is set on a hill overlooking the Berounda River. The castle was where the Holy Roman Empire and the Bohemian/Czech crown jewels and other holy relics were kept until the 17th century. The structure was rebuilt in 1480 in the late Gothic style but altered to a Renaissance style at the end of the 16th century. The last reconstruction occurred in the 19th century giving Karlstejn Castle its current appearance. The interior boasts the Chapel of St. Nicholas, a Royal bedroom, an Audience Hall, a library, the Chapel of St. Catherine, the Imperial Palace, the Hall of Knights, the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the High Tower, where the imperial jewels were once kept, and the Holy Rood Chapel with more than 2,000 precious and semiprecious gems adorning the walls. The exterior has a small courtyard and a Well Tower. Karlstejn Castle is open to the public for tours. The state owns the castle.

[allthingseurope]

Karlstejn Castle, Czech Republic (by Felix)

[livesunique]

Karlštejn Castle, Karlštejn, Czechia

[travelure]

Karlstejn Castle - Czechia’s Erstwhile Tower Of London

The highest level is the Big Tower, 60-metre tall, with its central area housing the Chapel of the Holy Cross. - Karlstejn Castle - Czechia’s Erstwhile Tower Of London - Travelure ©

LISTEN Karlstejn Castle – Czechia’s Erstwhile Tower Of London As we climbed the steep slope leading to Karlstejn Castle, our guide’s story reminded me of the Tower of London, the United Kingdom’s repository of crown jewels. Czech King Charles IV had built the castle as his residence and as a strong room for the Bohemian crown jewels. He added many layers of fortification to defend this…

[travelbinge]

Karlštejn Castle landscape by Alex Drop

Karlštejn, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic

[theframelines]

Castle by pramdrager

[aloulou-travel]

Castle by pramdrager