On an elevated ridge between the Berounka River and the Rakovnický stream stand the castles once home to Czech kings and princes, among them the striking Karlštejn Castle, a treasured piece of the country's royal heritage. Founded by Charles IV, king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, it was conceived less as a residence than as a strongroom for the imperial regalia and the emperor's collection of relics. The plan rises in stages up the rock to the Great Tower, whose Chapel of the Holy Cross housed those treasures behind gilded vaults, semi-precious stone inlay and rows of painted panels by Master Theodoric, in one of the most remarkable interiors of fourteenth-century Europe.
