Chvojen

A hilltop church from 1217 above the Konopiště woods — the second oldest in the Benešov region, standing on the site of a Celtic hillfort, with medieval frescoes uncovered during Franz Ferdinand's restoration.

The church of St James and St Philip on Chvojen hill is one of the oldest buildings in the region: a late-Romanesque church of 1217, built inside a medieval fortified farmstead on a site people had used far longer — the hill carries traces of a Celtic hillfort. The walls, up to four metres thick in places, let it double as a refuge in troubled times. Its present look comes from the restoration Franz Ferdinand d’Este ordered around 1900, when frescoes from the 13th and early 14th centuries were found under the plaster and conserved. The hilltop setting above the Konopiště woods gives it a quiet, open outlook that made it a favourite goal of walks from the château long before marked trails existed.