Renaissance Redevelopment

The greatest structural changes were made to the Helfštýn palace during the Renaissance. Some attribute these conversions and the shift toward the Italian style to the reign of Peter Vok of Rosenberg, who may himself have pushed for the High Renaissance adjustments to this large structure.

Despite the current fragmentary state, there are small stucco decorations in the palace that fully correspond to decorations in the Český Krumlov and Kratochvíle chateaus where Baldassare Maggi worked for the Rosenbergs. The Renaissance central plan featuring the regular rhythm of rectangular windows with moulded ledges has remained essential to the palace’s appearance. The central construction plan and the remains of sgraffito façade decorations reflect the exceptional quality of architecture in the 16th and 17th centuries, inspired by Florentine patterns.

Before the Rosenbergs, Helfštýn was tended by the House of Ludanice. Půta of Ludanice and Rokytnice bought the castle, together with the town of Lipník and 24 nearby villages, from the Pernštejns for 30,000 schocks of Bohemian groschen. From 1559, Helfštýn was held by Wenceslas of Ludanice. However, the era of the House of Ludanice at Helfštýn was rather short. Wenceslas of Ludanice died in Vienna in 1571 and the only heiress to the vast estates was Wenceslas’s five-year-old daughter, Katherine of Ludanice.

In 1580, Katherine of Ludanice married the forementioned South Bohemian nobleman (forty years-old at the time), Peter Vok of Rosenberg, who handed the management of the estate over to his officials, but often visited Helfštýn in the summer together with his wife. The long journeys from South Bohemia to Helfštýn can be pragmatically explained by necessary property inspections and regular entries in the real estate ledgers in Olomouc.

Katherine of Ludanice (b. 1565–1567?) became the only heiress to the vast estates. Her guardian, Zachary of Hradec, took advantage of Katherine’s young age, declaring her to be of legal age in 1574 with an eye to easy money, afterwards managing the estate “his way”.