Castle No. 57 - Salt House
Location :
This corner building of the former salthouse stands adjacent to the
Red
Gate, the main entrance to the castle grounds. On the northern
side the building closes into the Ist
Courtyard of Český Krumlov Castle.
Description :
The structure\'s immediate point of interest is its high guttertile
roof. The building is single-floored without a basement, and at one
time the attic contained the connecting
corridor leading from the castle to the Minorite monastery. The
basic groundplan is regular, which tells us that the structure was
built in one stage for a specific function.
Historical building development :
The original style of the period of construction is evident by the
interrupted Gothic portal as well as the analytically marked
smaller windows from the same period. The individual rooms of the
ground and first floors were originally for the purpose of storing
grain. Other Gothic granaries from the turn of the 15th-16th
centuries are known to us, for example, from the castles at Bechyňe
or from Švihov. The building finally underwent its first
modifications in the 18th century, when around 1723 the attic
construction was changed and the roof covered by guttertiles. The
construction of a new attic is documented from 1753, and this attic
remains up to the present. In 1875-6 the building was adapted into
a three-wing construction with a central corridor. At the same
time, the entrance portal was relocated from its original position
at the right side of the building and placed in its present
location. In 1939 a major part of the building was reconstructed
and a boiler room was installed. The building was again adapted in
1946 for office spaces.
Significant architectural details :
Interrupted Gothic portal, partly preserved Gothic attic.
History of the residents :
The first documentation, albeit unreliable, about the building\'s
existence is from an undated inventory of estate buildings in
conjunction with the sale of the estates by Peter Wok von
Rosenberg to Emperor Rudolf II. von
Habsburg in 1601. The building is mentioned here as a
storehouse for horse feed. It evidently burned down in 1610
together with its neighboring Castle
No. 56, but there is no written documentation of this. During
the entire 17th century, we have only sporadic information about
the very existence of the feed storage. At the beginning of the
18th century the building changed functions in context with a
change in the traditional salt trade route. The new route led
through Krumlov, and the ground floor of this building was adapted
into the necessary storage space. At the end of the 18th century
salt storage was discontinued here, it lost its function as a
granary, and it remained practically empty. The house was converted
in 1876 into residential usage with four service flats. It served
this purpose until 1946, when the interior was rebuilt into office
spaces and used for the needs of Public Security.
Legend :
It is said that this house is haunted, and some people who have
slept here have experienced anything but a peaceful night\'s rest.
Those responsible for this are said to be two guards who used to
watch over the salt here who, to pass the time and relieve the
boredom, often played dice. One of them tended to win quite a bit
and the other, who had only bad luck, evidently turned evil and
want to take revenge. It turned into a vicious fight between the
two guards, and both of them, filling the house with shouts of
rage, ended up killing each other. Today you can sometimes hear the
sounds of a fight, enraged voices, and sighs of the dying.
Contemporary use :
Today the spaces on the first floor are used as rental offices for
the daily newspaper Českokrumlovské listy, The
updating centre of the Official informative system of Český Krumlov
region and the firms and Ipex.
On the ground floor is a newly-established Unios
Tourist Service and Internet Café.
(ds)