Karlstein on a rainy day.

Impressive - and rather austere. Understandably...

It is said, that crusaders brought here something from the Jesus´tomb in Jerusalem. Charles IV was fond of collecting different relics. Sometimes he had got seven collar bones from one saint. In spite of that he believed, it was worth to collect even false relics, as among six false could be one real...:-)
Many of those relics were stolen by aristocracy from Austria afer capturing the castle in the 17th century. Something is still in the wall, under very precious stones and paintings and golden plates. By ultrasound it was diagnosed as something soft in a metal box, but they cannot get it, as such attempt would probably irreversibly destroy old painting and semipricious stones embedded in the wall.

The 2nd floor is full of Apocalypse paintings and above it is a golden room with 150 paintings of saints (one female saint is missing) which is in fact Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is said, that only King and Archbishop used to visit it - but they entered it always bareheaded and barefoot.

How interesting! Thank you for that information.

That is what I have remembered from the tourist guide, lol. I do not know how much is true and how much a fantasy...

Good point! ;-)

But interestingly, in the most sacred place of the castle, in the golden Chapel, I smelled olibanum. And nobody did. Guide was surprised, because she said it was prohibited to burn here anything for several decades. But I smelled it in the whole space.

Strange...

Moreover, from a tourist guide we have learned, that under the Cross is Mary, the Mother and Mary, the Sister. That was a good point. A young guide speaks fluently English, so she probably disseminates this nonsense worldwide.

Very probably, and - sadly - typically!