Château Červená Lhota
Žďákov Bridge
Červená Lhota is a château situated about 20 km north-west of Jindřichův Hradec in south Bohemia, Czech Republic. It stands at the middle of a lake on a rocky island.
The four-winged two-storey château, with a small courtyard in the center, occupies the whole rock and juts into the fishpond. A stone bridge links the château with the banks of the pond. The existence of an original gothic fortress on the site of today's château is assumed from sometime around the middle of the 14th century. It was built on a rocky granite outcrop, which, after the damming of a stream, became an island. The original gothic fortress has been in 1530 remodeled to more comfortable renaissance château acquiring the name Nová Lhota. |
Present name Červená Lhota is known from the beginning of 17th century according to that time newly applied red color of its facade and bright-red roof tiles (“červená” means red in Czech language). This external appearance and name is kept up to present days.
Chateau passed various architectural styles. In the middle of 19th century it has been remodeled to Neo-Gothic style, however in the beginning of 20th century it has been rebuilt back to historical and more sensitive building of picturesque Neo-Renaissance style according to project of architect Humbert Walcher von Moltheim. |
Fishpond of dimensions about 160x200 meters surrounded by wall of thick and tall forest does not propose ideal conditions for glider-flying. Launch and landing appeared at the narrow meadow situated on the southern edge of the fishpond.
Original photos of resolution 8Mpx are published on server Panoramio in reduced resolution.
During the jorney home, I used the opportunity to fly shortly above famous Žďákov Bridge, named after the nearby village Žďákov, previously situated close to the bridge and flooded during the construction of the Orlík Dam.
This steel bridge unique in its construction is the eighth longest one-arch bridge in the world and the longest upper bridge-deck construction at all. The total length of the bridge is 543 m, including approach spans. The main steel arch of weight 3100 tons and span 379,6 m supports double-lane roadway crossing the valley in height of 50 meters above level of river Vltava, 110 meters above valley floor. Like a landing runway, just bridge roadway was used in the moment of no traffic. Unfortunately, after 2 minutes of flight the recording has been aborted. Either battery became weak or (more probably) I have unwittingly activated the remote toggle switch for start/stop of recording during flight control. |
Therefore just two nice snapshots is all what left from that amazing flight of duration about 20-minutes flown during cold windless sunny morning 17th August 2013.