History of castle Velhartice

This work describes history of Velhartice, a castle in southwest Czech which was built in 13th century. First part focuses on succession of owners of Velhartice castle. It describes the circumstances under which they came to ownership of Velhartice and the reasons for which they had to hand it to others. In cases of the prominent owners like Bušek, Menhart of Hradec or Martin de Hoeff-Huerta this work focuses on their lives with emphasis on their relation towards Velhartice and their usage of surrounding manor. It tries to put them in context with Czech history and to emphasize the importance of Velhartice in all-society events. Second part of this work introduces building development of all parts of the castle in particular periods. It explains reasons for the expansion of the castle and by that it outlines living in the castle in those periods. This part informs the reader about the examples of gothic and renaissance architecture on Velhartice castle and also draws attention to the unique defence element - the gothic bridge with two fall-bridges. Third and final part of this work reports about contemporary presentation of history and reveals content of sightseeing tours. It describes nowadays appearance of the castle and is meant to be also an invitation for visiting Velhartice