Bezděz

Přemysl Otakar II's best-preserved castle (completed by 1279) on its unmistakable twin-coned hill — early gothic chapel, prison of the boy-king Václav II, and Mácha's inspiration for Máj.

Bezděz is the king of the region’s silhouettes: the twin volcanic cones rise straight from the flat Mácha country, and the gothic castle on the higher one has barely changed since the 13th century — never rebuilt into a château, never modernised, which makes it the best-preserved castle of Přemysl Otakar II anywhere. Completed by 1279, it promptly served as the prison of the king’s own son, the boy Václav II. The castle chapel ranks among the finest early gothic interiors in the country, and the great tower’s view — Máchovo jezero, Ralsko, Ještěd, the sandstone country south — explains why Karel Hynek Mácha kept walking here in the 1830s while Máj took shape. Open in season; the climb from Bezděz village is steep, cobbled and worth it.