Castles · Tour

Your Private Guide Cannot Guide Inside: the State Provides That

A private half day from Prague to Karlštejn, with the entrance fee included. One rule shapes how this works, and it is worth knowing in advance rather than at the gate. Outside guides are not permitted to lead tours inside state-owned castles, and Karlštejn is one of them. Your guide buys you a place on the castle's own group tour for the interiors, and takes up the commentary again outside. Nobody is cutting corners; that is simply Czech law. What your own guide can do is the part the castle tour skips: why Charles IV built the place in the 14th century to hold the crown jewels, and what is in the Chapel of the Holy Cross up in the Great Tower, where Master Theodoric painted 129 portraits of saints, a set with no equivalent anywhere. The day also takes in Svatý Jan pod Skalou, a village down in a valley, with the cave of St Ivan, a hermit who lived there in the 9th century, and a spring the locals credit with healing properties. One date to check: in January and February the castle opens only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.