The first written mention of Velhartice settlement is from 1318. However, the Gothic Velhartice Castle was built already in 1290-1310 by a nobleman who later became courtier and close friend of the Emperor Charles IV.
During the Thirty Years' War, Emperor Ferdinand II gave the castle to one of his generals, Don Balthazar de Marradas who, in 1628, sold it to Don Martin de Hoeff Huerta who bought it for his beautiful adopted daughter Anne-Marie of Moldavia.
In 1790s, the Desfours family, who at the time also owned the castle, built a paper-making factory in Velhartice which, during the World War II, made sleeping bags for the German Army. A leather-tanning factory opened in 1882 and during the World War II provided leather for military boots made in the neighbouring town. In 1945, several armoured units of George S. Patton's Third Army were stationed in Velhartice. The last owner of the Velhartice Castle, Prince Windisch-Graetz, was expelled to Austria in 1946. Presently the castle is claimed by the Czech Republic.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.