Czech Republic · 13th century
Zvíkov (Czech: hrad Zvíkov; German: Klingenberg), often called "the king of Czech castles", is a castle in Zvíkovské Podhradí municipality, about 15 kilometres (9 mi) north of Písek in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It stands on a difficult-to-access and steep promontory above the confluence of the Vltava and Otava rivers. The castle is one of the most important early-Gothic castles in Czech lands.
The area was inhabited as early as prehistoric times, when the Celts built a fort here in the 1st century AD. The current castle was built in the first half of the 13th century, most probably on the orders of King Ottokar I, but the exact date is not known. The first written mention of the castle comes from year 1234 and owned by the Kings of Bohemia.
Text adapted from “Zvíkov Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Zvíkov Castle ranks #1,243 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #29 of the 243 mapped in Czech Republic. Founded c. 1300, it is older than 61% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 1080 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,920 times in the last 60 days, more than 83% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 31,000 visitors in 2022. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Plzeň, 67 km away. It is one of the 189 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Bohemia. It is stop 24 of 28 on the Bohemian castle route, Prague to Český Krumlov. See how Czech Republic compares in the castle statistics.
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