Sídla českých panovníků – Jarolímková Stanislava (2020)

This book is primarily aimed at younger readers, but it will certainly offer interesting information to adults who are content to glance at history without having to tackle extensive academic texts. The first part introduces you to the construction of royal residences, which were not just castles, their defense, and the everyday life of noble inhabitants – from heating, lighting, and (not) washing to feasting or tournaments that did not involve mares. The second part of the book invites you to stroll through the most significant Czech residences, complemented by easily memorable and lesser-known curiosities. You will learn, for example: • why kings did not run around castle courtyards with crowns on their heads, • why it was necessary to change the sand in hourglasses, • what Charles IV had in common with plums, what he used to clean his teeth, and why he was imprisoned in two castles, • which castle has the oldest preserved elevator, 150 years old, • what the residents of the Golden Lane houses at Prague Castle were forbidden to do, • which royal castle received a "turned" astronomical clock, • how knights protected their armor from rusting, • why tournament participants were not hoisted onto horseback by a crane.