Golden Lane

Monday, April 5, 2010 (Part 3):

Finally, we arrived along the outer wall of the Castle complex, and we started an up-hill trek to reach one of the entry points. We entered the complex on the lower, eastern side and found ourselves in an area called Golden Lane. This is a street filled with cottages originally built in the 16th century for the guards of the Castle. We walked up a flight of stairs at one end of the Lane and were able to walk through the second floor area where we found a display of medieval armor and armaments.

At the end of Golden Lane, we descended a staircase and found ourselves at the Dalibor Tower. This grim 15th century tower was originally part of the Castle fortifications but came to serve as a prison and is named after one of the first inmates. This was a very sad space. The prison "cells" were miniscule and it took little effort to imagine how horrible the conditions must have been.