Střekov Castle

This prominent landmark of the Elbe valley, protected as a cultural monument since 1963, was probably built on the initiative of King John of Bohemia, who granted the local fief to Pešík of Veitmile in 1319. That same year, the House of Wartenberg acquired the residence, and after a succession of other owners, including the Margraves of Meissen, the Kladenský family of Kladno, and the Fictum family, it was rebuilt into a more comfortable Late Gothic style by the Glac family of Starý Dvůr at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The Lobkowicz family owned the castle for the longest period, from 1563 to 1945 and again since 1992; although they did not live there permanently, they kept it in working order until the Thirty Years' War. During this conflict, however, the castle was repeatedly captured and burned, and its gradual decay was not prevented even by the fact that it served as a military fortress for the last time during the Seven Years' War. A new era arrived with the Romantic period, when the ruins became a popular destination for prominent figures and ordinary tourists alike, for whom a restaurant was established here in 1830, followed by extensive structural modifications in the 1880s and between 1911 and 1912.