Panenské Břežany, Lower Castle

At the beginning of the Second World War, after the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the owner of the castle, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, emigrated and the castle became a residence of both Reichsprotectors Konstantin von Neurath and Reinhard Heydrich. After Heydrich was assassinated in 1942, his wife Lina Heydrich with their children lived there till the end of the war. She run a big business there; she grew fruit and vegetables, let the trees in the park chop down, and sold the antlers to the button factory. She was employing Jewish prisoners from Terezín who lived in the castle, in miserable conditions.