VRANOV ROCK FORTRESS
(PANTHEON)

Welcome to Vranov – the country‘s largest rock castle. Along with its „farming“ courtyards it is nearly 400 m long and is considered to be the longest and most complex fortified rock settlement ever built in the Czech Kingdom.

Fortress description
At the beginning of the violent 15th century, this narrow steep and jagged sandstone cliff was turned into a natural fortress and a wooden watch-tower (accessible only by a narrow, steep staircase dug into the rock) was erected at its highest point. A large number of rooms, dungeons and cellars were dug into the soft sandstone rock. Frequent (and still noticeable) grooves and cuttings in the rock show that mostly timber and wood were used to fortify the tops of the rock faces, to bridge the gaps and to build dwellings. Some of the constructions, however, were walled, like the quadrangle living tower, remnants of which are still visible today. The whole rock settlement was divided into an upper castle core and a fortified „farming“ section. The fortress territory was far larger than it appears today.
Supplying the vast fortress with water presented considerable problems. The deep well, preserved up until today, was situated somewhat outside the rock cliff so had to be fortified too. Vranov served as a sentry castle until the beginning of the 16th century. It was then abandoned and became desolate over time. Its medieval pattern was changed by reconstructions inspired by Romantacism at the beginning of the 19th century.

Vranov medieval history
The castle was founded in 1425 by Heník of Wallenstein, as one of the last castles in the region. The Wallensteins held the fortress throughout the 15th century, without interfering much in the Hussite wars or later religious wars in the period of King George of Poděbrady. Lord Šťastný of Wallenstein, however, who stood firmly on the side of the protestant King George had numerous armed skirmishes with his catholic neighbours.
Jindřich (Henry) of Wallenstein sold the castle and the domain to the Wartenberg family in 1583. By then, the Vranov domain was a very rich one, encompassing over 50 villages on a vast piece of land stretching from Turnov to Jablonec, and parts of the towns of Turnov and Železný Brod. By this time the castle and domain were called simply „Skály“ (The Rocks), or Vartemberské Skály (The Wartenberg Rocks), to be distinguished from the nearby Hrubá Skála (The Huge Rock).
The inevitable period of decline started when the castle was owned by Jan of Wartenberg. As early as around 1500 a simple but comfortable manor house was built in the valley under the castle. In safer times, Jan turned the manor house into a country mansion and made it the new centre for the domain renamed Malá Skála (The Little Rock). Vranov fortress was abandoned and left to decay. The whole domain was purchased in 1615 by the protestant lord Albrecht Jan Smiřický of Smiřice.
Jan Albrecht was a passionate protestant and one of the leaders of the Czech Protestant Lords Uprising against the catholic Emperor Matthias of Habsburg. After the tragic defeat of the Uprising at the Battle of Bílá Hora (White Mountain) in 1620 the Malá Skála domain was confiscated from the Smiřický family and given to the imperial general Albrecht of Wallenstein, one of the most powerful miltary leaders of 17th century Europe. Albrecht granted the domain as a feudatory to his collonell Nicholas Desfours. Desfours owned Malá Skála untill 1802.

Turning the fortress into Pantheon (the Römisch reconstruction)
The Malá Skála domain (including the desolateVranov castle) was purchased in 1802 by the wealthy textile trader Franz Zacharias Römisch - a „nouveau riche” from the North-Czech town of Nixdorf (today Mikulášovice). Römisch was rich enough to buy not only the domain but also his aristocratic title. Inspired by the idealism of European Romanticism he decided to turn the castle ruins into a Pantheon – a memorial to outstanding persons of his epoch (in ancient Greek, „Pan“ means „all, entire“, while „Theós“ means God).
In the castle ruins (but also in the adjacent forests) he errected tens of memorials and monuments celebrating great writers and poets, legendary heroes, Czech Kings and outstanding military leaders. Their selection not only corresponded to Römisch ideals and the cultural atmosphere of European Romanticism, but also reflected Czech patriotism: although he himself was an ethnic German from the catholic Austrian Empire borderlands. He, in one place, celebrated mythological figures from ancient Czech History (Princess Libuše, heroes, such as Záboj and Horymír) the great Czech King who perished in battle with the Habsburgs (Přemysl Otakar) or the protestant king George of Poděbrady. Other memorials are dedicated to Austrian military leaders who fought Napoleon, German mythological heroes or to Shakespeare, Goethe, Cervantes and Rabelais.
It took over 20 years to finish this grandiose project. The works were completed by the building of a summer pleasure house in the form of a chapel in the Romantic Neo-Gothic style (1826). Immediately after Römisch‘s death the Pantheon began to fall into disrepair as his offspring showed little understanding for the romantic passion of their idealistic ancestor and gave the Pantheon neither money not time. Much of what was once the Pantheon was destroyed and is lost forever. Nevertheless, the Vranov - Pantheon retains the remarkable (even if perhaps somewhat bizarre) connection of the medieval fortress ruins with the ideals of 19th century European Romanticism.