Konopiste Castle is particularly famous as it was the home of Franz Ferdinand – not the Scottish rock band, but of Archduke Ferdinand, the man whose assassination led to the First World War. So for those interested in history, or for those who want a pleasant day out from Prague and a stroll through some lovely countryside, Konopiste Castle is a great place to go.
Practical information
Getting there
Konopiste is easily reached from Prague by either train or bus. Personally I prefer the train. Chceck out the times here: http://jizdnirady.idnes.cz/vlakyautobusy/spojeni/ A button in the bottom right hand corner will change the site to English or German. The journey takes 42 minutes by fast train and costs 68 crowns. From the station, Konopiste is about 2km. Walk out of the station, turn left, walk up to the bridge over the railway line and cross over. You are now on the road to Konopiste. After about 250 metres on this road, there is a yellow hiking trail which forks off on the left of the road. Take this route which will lead you along a delightful path (the one in the first photo above) to Konopiste Castle.
Information about Konopiste
The official Konopiste Castle website is here: http://www.zamek-konopiste.cz/en/ As you can see there is a bear on the website and there is a poor bear in the moat outside the castle.
For wiki information on Konopiste: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konopi%C5%A1t%C4%9B
Somewhere to eat
We ate at the Stara Myslivka restaurant, less than a kilometre from Konopiste castle. The food was heavy game (goose, pheasant, boar etc) and was pretty good. A big log fire makes this a very pleasant place to stop on a cold winter’s day. http://www.staramyslivna.com/
Somewhere to stay
As this is such a short distance from Prague, and we travelled there in November, we didn’t need to stay over, but it might be nice to stay in Benesov for a night and get to Konopiste Castle before the vast majority of tourists arrive- in summer the place can get very crowded at peak times.
More of the Czech Republic?
Adrspach rock city Brno Cesky Krumlov Czech animals Czech food Czech Switzerland Krivoklat Castle Kutna Hora Mikulov Olomouc Sumava Telc Valtice Vranov nad Dyji Vysehrad Znojmo