Tetín Castle

King Přemysl Otakar the Second had the castle built on the site of an older fortified settlement in the mid-thirteenth century, and the first written mention of it dates back to 1288, when Hynek of Lichtenburk administered it as burgrave. During the reign of Wenceslas the Second, it underwent reconstruction, as it was also intended to serve illegitimate members of the royal family, and later, the royal notary and scribe Štěpán of Tetín settled here. Emperor Charles the Fourth eventually bought the estate and annexed it to Karlštejn, which, however, did not add to the castle's significance, and from the second half of the fourteenth century, it slowly began to decay. The building's layout had an unusual trapezoidal shape without towers; later, a three-part palace was added, along with an expanded western section featuring a massive gate tower built using opus spicatum technique. The eastern part of the castle fell victim to limestone mining, which took place here especially in the nineteenth century, so the preserved remains today are only a fraction of the original structure. The ruins lie on a rocky promontory on the edge of the village of Tetín near Beroun and are a protected cultural monument, also thanks to the legend connecting the place with the tragic fate of Saint Ludmila.