One of Beethoven’s famous anecdotes happened in Hradec Castle.Namely, in August 1806, he was invited to Prince Lichnowsky’s castle, his most important patron during the first 15 years in Vienna, happy to get away from the hated French occupiers in Vienna for a while. Beethoven spends idyllic weeks at the castle, but one evening the prince wishes Beethoven to play for Lichnowsky’s visitors, French officers. But Beethoven refuses to play for the occupiers and promptly leaves the castle. The next morning, the Prince is said to have received a letter with the famous words: “Prince! What you are, you are by chance and birth. What I am, I am by myself. There will be thousands of princes, Beethoven exists only once”.