Landštejn Castle Landštejn Castle is located in the Jindřichův Hradec District of South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic . Landštejn location belongs to the municipality of Staré Město pod Landštejnem . The castle was built in the early 13th century , being mentioned for the first time in 1231 , and it was , at that time , the biggest Romanesque castle in the Czech lands . To this day , it remains one of the oldest and best preserved structures in Europe . The two massive towers are connected with a wall defining the upper castle and its courtyard . The six - story southern tower is the main tower and it is still fully preserved , including a gate in the western wall . History . The view on Landštejn as an Austrian defense stronghold was changed by new archaeological finds . Evidence of an even older castle was found under Landštejn in Pomezí , and perhaps the Landštejn of today was built by Moravian Přemyslides as their military base . When and how the Vítkovici gained Landštejn is not in the records . The Lords of Landštejn won more and more political influence through their personal bravery . Under Vilém of Landštejn their estates , besides the castle and Nová Bystřice , included Třeboň , Lomnice and Nové Hrady . After initial disagreement Vilém accepted a feudal obligation in 1317 and became adviser to King John of Luxemburg . He was on friendly terms also with King Charles IV who supported him in his bloody conflict with a militant distant relative , Jindřich of Hradec . In 1381 Konrád Krajíř of Krajka obtained the estate and his family kept it for nearly two centuries . They strengthened the fortifications substantially and built new palaces round the five - cornered courtyard . In 1579 the last member of the Krajíř family , Anna Roupovská , sold Landštejn to Stěpán of Eincing and after that , owners came in quick succession . The Herbersteins owned the castle from 1685 till 1816 when the last member of the family , Count Josef died . In 1771 lightning struck one of the towers and the castle was burnt out . It fell into ruin and provided building material for the local population . The long struggle over inheritance ended in 1846 when the abandoned castle fell to Baron Ferdinand Sternbach . The German poet , Friedrich Schiller , was enchanted by its thick walls and laid the scene of his play " The Robbers " in the surrounding forests . Today Landštejn is one of the best preserved examples of medieval fortification systems . The oldest , Romanesque part with a palace built between two defensive towers is unique in Bohemia . The later completion of the Gothic defense system with living quarters in the donjon gave the castle another courtyard . The lofty Renaissance palace of the Krajíř family and Baroque artillery bastions ended the building styles carried out in four stages of development . Family curse . The ancestress of the Landštejn family was also called the White Lady . She is said to have punished all her descendants who did not keep the Lord ' s Commandments by giving them a bad illness . When she was exorcized from Landštejn , she moved to Borotín near Tábor and put a curse on the Lords of Landštejn . And therefore , it is said , the powerful and famous family perished .