Karlštejn is located about 30 km southwest of Prague. It is situated on the banks of the Berounka River in the Český kras Protected Landscape Area. The castle was founded around 1348 as a private representative residence of the Roman Emperor and King Charles IV. Only over time, after Charles’s coronation in Rome in 1355, the emperor changed the purpose of the castle as a treasury for the preservation of the imperial crown jewels and a set of holy relics. At present, the castle is an important national cultural monument and one of the most visited castles in the Czech Republic.