The Upper and Lower Castles in Benešov nad Ploučnicí represent an art-historically significant example of a genuine extant Renaissance architectural complex, of which the nearby Parish Church of the Birth of the Virgin also forms a part. These buildings are associated with the aristocratic Von Salhausen family of Meissen, who had come to Bohemia in the early sixteenth century and commissioned magnificent buildings here in the Saxon Renaissance style. After the failure of the Bohemian Revolt in 1621, the Salhausen family were among those forced to leave the country, and the castles fell into other hands. Since Benešov nad Ploučnicí was never again the seat of a noble family, neither of the castles was subjected to the usual "modernizations". Today this unique group of Renaissance buildings is a visitor attraction - not only for architecture buffs. An exhibition of furniture, porcelain, weapons, paintings, graphic works and works of applied art vividly conveys the aristocratic way of life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A noteworthy feature in the castle courtyard is a copy of a sculpture of a Triton by the Dutch master Adriaen de Vries.

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