Zbiroh
Renaissance chateau
The castle is a four-winged building with a central courtyard. In the castle you can see the Art Nouveau lounge and Alphonse Mucha's Hall, where he created his magnificent work - the Slav Epic.
Masons from all over the world came to the castle to see Mucha, who was a member of the Czech Masonic Lodge.
From 1943 to 1945, the castle was the headquarters of the SS. In the cellars, members of the SS met to perform mystical rituals. The reason they chose this place is supposed to be the power that emanates from a crack in the earth.
After World War II, the castle became the property of the Czechoslovak state and was used by the army. The castle, standing on the edge of the Brdy military area, became a well-kept secret place where no one from the public could get in. Radio-technical searchlights Tamara, Ramona and Vera were placed directly in the castle to detect the movements of NATO aircraft and other troops in Western Europe. Information gathered from there was sent to Warsaw Pact headquarters in Moscow. The lydit rock on which the castle stands, which reflects the radio signal, acted as an excellent natural amplifier.