Vranov Castle and Pantheon

Vranov, a guard castle, used to stand on a narrow and steep sandstone cliff above the right bank of the Jizera River. It was founded by Heník of Wallenstein in around 1425, but the sources list it as abandoned as early as at the beginning of the 16th century. What remains, including the outer bailey, spans a length of almost 400 m and it is currently considered the longest and most complex rock castle in the Czech Republic. The biggest changes were made to the remnants of the castle in the first half of the 19th century, when the estate was bought by the textile entrepreneur Franz Zacharias Römisch. He had romantic monuments and mounds erected in and around the ruins to commemorate distinguished writers and poets, legendary heroes, Czech rulers and military leaders. He called all of this the Pantheon. The Hall of the Three Emperors has been preserved at the site to this day, honouring the victory of the allied forces over Napoleon in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in 1813, as well as a number of winding little paths, caves and memorial plaques. The Pantheon is dominated by a Neo-Gothic summer house with a little tower, dating from 1826.