Pernštejn

Pernštejn Castle rises above a wooded valley near Nedvědice in Moravia. Founded by the Pernštejn family and recorded in 1285, it became the centre of their extensive lordship. At the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the family enlarged the medieval fortress into a more representative residence, adding halls and elaborate vaulting while retaining its defences.

Jan of Pernštejn sold the castle in 1596. During the Thirty Years' War its garrison resisted an unsuccessful Swedish siege in 1645. Later owners made further changes, including decoration of the Knights' Hall in the early eighteenth century, leaving a layered record of the castle's changing uses.