Konopištĕ

I wanted to do a separate little post about Franz Ferdinand’s Czech residence, Konopištĕ. Dad and I, along with his friend Joe, took a day trip out to this little castle in the Czech countryside and boy was it weird! I left Prague that day knowing absolutely nothing about Franz Ferdinand other than the fact that his assassination was the event which started WWI, but returned to Prague that evening with a wealth of knowledge about this eccentric royal.

Franz was only 24 when he purchased the castle as hunting lodge. Ferdinand was an avid hunter and Konopeiste offered fertile hunting grounds and a place to display his many trophies. Seriously, every inch of this place was covered in antlers and animal skins. Ferdinand went on a yearlong, world-wide hunting expedition and every animal from that trip was displayed along with the date of the kill and country of origin. The guy was thorough!  He also had an amazing armory will beautiful ivory embellished swords and intricate suits of armor. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside so I swiped some of these from Google image to give you an idea of the over-the-top nature of his obsession.

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Ferdinand was a bit kooky and filled his moat with these local bears, one of which still lives at the castle! Franz also went against the wishes of his family and married Sophie Chotek- an unsuitable wife as she was not a member of a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty of Europe. By doing this, the couple’s children would not be able to inherit the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was a pretty huge sacrifice for Franz in the name of love. Hearing Franz and Sophie’s love story was super charming and learning about their bright and adventurous children was also a treat.  

These native bears have a very unique "V" marking on their chest.

They also have on display the clothes Franz and Sophie were wearing when they were assassinated. It was at the same time awesome seeing such a neat piece of world history and incredibly sad after spending the previous 2 hours getting to know these royals.

Konopištĕ was an excellent side trip and a beautiful place to be on a Czech summer day!