The origin of the castle dates back to the 14th century, when Beneš of Vartemberk had a small wooden fortress with a defensive stone tower built on a rocky promontory in the middle of three valleys. A popular legend says that the castle was named Kost during the time when it was besieged by Jan Žižka and, after the unsuccessful conquest of the castle, he declared that it was solid as a bone. However, the truth remains that the founder of the castle, Count Beneš, signed the founding charter with the Latin nickname Benesius de Costi, which the Czechs distorted during the reading and renamed it Beneš of Kost (bone).

After Beneš’s death, his son Petr, who enjoied a high position at the court of Charles IV, became the owner of Kost. Thanks to his position, he was in a very good financial situation and began the overall reconstruction of the rather small fortress into a larger stone castle. The original castle´s core has been preserved to this day.

In 1414, the granddaughter of Peter of Vartemberk was married to the rich Catholic Mikuláš Zajíc of Házmburk. Their descendants remained here practically throughout the entire 15th century. The last owner from Zajíc family was Mikuláš’s grandson, who had appointed guardian Zdeněk Lev from Rožmitál due to his minor age. He sold castle Kost and the estate to Jan of Šelmberk to pay off the debts of the Zajíc family.

As early as 1524, Jan Šelmberk’s son Jindřich sold the estate to Oldřich of Biberštejn, whose son Jan had a new residential palace built on the way to the castle between the first and second gates in 1545, overlooking the Plakánek Valley.

In the middle of the 16th century, the owners changed again. The Biberštejns were dying out and Kryštof Popel Lobkowic took over the castle. He had a brewery built, the Lobkovický Palace and other buildings which were fortified and attached to the castle.

Kryštof’s son, Oldřich Felix, was the last owner to stay in Kost as his residence. Other owners came to the castle rather to control the operation of the estate, which was entrusted to officials. In 1632, Polyxena of Lobkowic sold the Kost estate to Albrecht of Valdštejn, who was preparing to rebuild the castle. However, his plan was put to an end due to his assassination in Cheb two years later. The property was returned to Polyxena due to the outstanding contractual amount. Her son then immediately sells the manor to the Černín family, who rebuild the freshly burnt-out castle and use it as the center of the estate´s economy.

In order for the Černíns to reduce their debts, they sold Kost and its estate to the ambitious Václav Kazimír Netolický of Eisenberk in 1738. He proved to be a good manager, but he treated the people on his estate with contempt. Václav’s only son did not have a male descendant so the estate passed on to the Vratislav-Netolicky family.

A few years later, the Vratislav-Netolicky family had the same problem with lack of male descendants. The property passed along the female line to the Italian family dal Borgo, who again took up the surname Netolický. The last owner of the castle was Anna Marie dal Borgo Netolicky, when the castle was confiscated in 1948. During communism, the castle served as a museum of Gothic and Renaissance art.

After 1989, the property was returned in restitution to Giovanni Kinský dal Borgo, the eldest son of Norbert Kinský and Anna Marie dal Borgo-Netolická. Giovanni Kinský dal Borgo then transferred  the castle’s ownership into the newly created company Kinský dal Borgo a.s.

Let yourself to be seduced by the atmosphere of times long past and invite your business partners, colleagues, friends or family to Kost. We are professionals and will help you organize the events according to your ideas.

Representative Vartember Palace with a large dance hall and smaller rooms of Šelemberský Palace.

up to 150 people

Three smaller castle rooms in the courtyard near the Great Tower. Ideal for wedding ceremonies.

up to 80 people

Spacious castle courtyard in the middle of the castle (suitable for holding concert and theater open-air performances).

up to 80 people