Nový Berštejn is a Renaissance chateau tucked into a tiny village just north of Dubá, now transformed into a luxury hotel with a genuinely dramatic past. Layers of Renaissance, Baroque and pseudo-historical alterations have shaped it into the striking building you see today.

Surrounded by a sprawling English-style park filled with remarkable trees — dwarf cypresses, yellowish yews, weeping hemlock, dwarf spruce, tulip trees and towering old white pines — the chateau feels like a peaceful hideaway. The landscape around Dubá, just outside the Kokořínsko protected area, invites walks in any season, and part of the park preserves older original forest, giving it a slightly wilder edge beyond the manicured grounds.

• From Prague via road I/9 to Dubá, continuing north toward Jestřebí — the chateau lies about 1 km from town, reachable by car
• Road II/270 branches off near the chateau; there is no train connection in the area
• A green-marked trail loops around the park from Dubá to the Chapel of St. Barbara and back through Nedamov

• The chateau now operates as a luxury hotel, accessible by booking a stay or visit
• The park features a golf course, two tennis courts, a children's playground and a restored Baroque swimming pool
• The building is listed as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic

Fun fact: the chateau's appearance was captured in a colored 1833 drawing by Karel Hynek Mácha, the celebrated Czech Romantic poet — and after surviving confiscations, wartime use and decades of decay, it now shines again after a costly 1990s restoration.