 Krummau on the MoldauCesky Krumlov, the Great Castle of the Schwarzenbergs in BohemiaTHE CASTLE OF Krummau in Bohemia stands majestically on its crag in a bend of the Moldau river, presiding confidently over the town below. Cesky Krumlov, as the town is known in the currently-reigning Czech language, began in the thirteenth century under the Rosenberg family and was purchased by the Emperor Rudolf II in 1602. Yet it was under the princely house of Schwarzenberg (proprietors of Krummau from 1719 to 1945) that the castle flourished. The name Cesky Krumlov means Bohemian Krummau, to differentiate it from a Moravian town of the same name. (It is also often rendered as Krumau or Krumau-an-der-Moldau).
While the advent of Communism deprived the Schwarzenbergs of this great castle and numerous other vast properties of theirs behind the Iron Curtain, the Schwarzenbergs have since regained their natural prominence in Bohemia. His Serene Highness Prince Karl VII of Schwarzenberg, Duke of Krummau, Count of Sulz, Princely Landgrave of Kelttgau currently serves his country as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, as well as being a member of the Czech Senate which convenes in the Wallenstein Palace in Prague. For the sake of convenience, however, His Serene Highness goes by ‘Karel Schwarzenberg’. — Andrew Cusack
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Although Krummau is uniquely magnificent it is not really the residence of the Schwarzenbergs (at least not since the 18th century); more the administrative centre of their vast estates, which had reached some
1,500,000 acres by the time of the 1848 Revolution (the aftermath of which left them with a meagre half a million).
Their principal country seat was Frauenberg (called now for some unfathomable reason Hlubocka). This is an immense neo-Gothic pile, and not to everyone’s taste. Its hugeness however overwhelms, and its interiors are of the highest quality.
The family, sadly, has not yet been able to return in the triumphantly proprietary way one might wish for.