Velhartice is a village in the Czech Republic dating to the 13th century, dominated by the Gothic castle Hrad Velhartice. The castle was built 1290-1310 by a nobleman who later became courtier and close friend of the Emperor Charles IV . During the Thirty Years' War, Emperor Ferdinand II gave the castle to one of his generals, Don Balthazar de Marradas who, in 1628, sold it to Don Martin de Hoeff Huerta who bought it for his beautiful adopted daughter Anne-Marie of Moldavia. In 1790s, the Desfours family, who at the time also owned the castle, built a paper-making factory in Velhartice which, during the World War II, made sleeping bags for the German A...
Continue reading...From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.