People visit castles to learn about history, and Nemilkov is no exception. However, if you visit Hluboká nad Vltavou Castle, you probably won't hear much about recent history. Here, however, it is impossible to avoid. After the war, the castle fell into the hands of the state. Due to its location and size, it was decided that it would be used for municipal purposes and agricultural production. All "unsuitable" inventory was taken away by the "national" administrator, most likely to Kozel Castle. Fortunately, the castle building was used for the offices of the national committee, a library, a chamomile drying room, and also for housing. So, structurally, the castle has not been altered in any way, unlike the farm buildings. However, there are a few special features to be found.

Decorative door frames studded with solid nails. What could have been hung there?

I often think back to my grandfather, who was nicknamed "Thunderclap." Grandpa studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and was the principal of a high school in Hradec Králové. While foreign languages were no problem for him, hammering nails was. Nevertheless, he loved to hammer nails everywhere. He was particularly fond of wooden door frames, where he hung his hats. It's obvious why I remembered him: you won't find a door frame, door, or window in the castle that doesn't have a nail hammered into it. What is interesting is not only their location, which is mostly completely illogical, but above all their size. It is truly astonishing: a two-centimeter strip is pierced by a ten-centimeter nail, the tip of which sticks out on the other side. It seems that the comrades simply made a mistake somewhere and only 10 cm and larger nails were available. So, in Nemilkov, nails are in everything they can be hammered into.

Bricks collected from various parts of the castle. Was another building supposed to be built here?

Bricks are similar to nails. They are ubiquitous both underground and in attics. You can bet on their presence and never lose. Interestingly, these are not just remnants, but you can also find whole, unused bricks. When my brother was building a cottage in Slapy in the 1980s, even our grandmother, who was able to get the impossible at the time, had a problem with bricks. The only explanation we could think of was the well-known rationing system. If you return something as surplus, you will receive a smaller ration the following year.

Asphalted courtyard

Unfortunately, there was also a lot of asphalt, which is why we have it almost everywhere. Today, we walk around the castle courtyard about 30 cm higher than in Schreiner's time. In their day, the paths were paved with granite cubes, which we found in several places in the courtyard. Unfortunately, the elevation of the surface caused and continues to cause a lot of damage. Water flows down to the buildings instead of draining away as it did in our ancestors' time. The courtyard features such curiosities as asphalted channels and rain gutters, an old corner bollard that just peeks out of the surface, windows half a meter above the ground, and rotting floors, now located below the surrounding terrain. All this presents us with a difficult decision about what to do with the courtyard in the future. We do not yet know whether it will be possible to restore it to its 19th-century appearance. Only time will tell...