The ruins of this mid-fourteenth-century castle lie about seven miles northwest of Prague. The name Okoř is thought to be related to the word ‘kořen’, or ‘root’, and is the subject of a colourful tale in which Přemysl the ploughman, founder of the Přemsylid dynasty, is said to have stumbled on a tree-root on the way to his stronghold at Vyšehrad. In 1359 František Rokycanský, a wealthy alderman of Prague’s Old Town, was granted the castle and surrounding lands by order of the emperor Charles IV. During the centuries that followed the castle was remodelled as a renaissance (and later, baroque) palace. These developments have since fallen into disrepair. The original gothic chapel, however, is still preserved at the foot