Originally built of wood, the moated castle of Budyně is near Budyně nad Ohří in Northern Bohemia. In the thirteenth century, King Ottokar I added a moat to the castle; up to the reign of King John of Luxembourg the complex belonged to Bohemian nobles. It acquired its present form in the fifteenth century. In 1585 it was remodelled in the Renaissance style. Parts of the complex were restored at the end of the twentieth century. Besides the castle itself, a reconstruction of the workshop of alchemist Johann Zbinco von Hasenburg (ca. 1560–1616) is well worth seeing. A particular curiosity is the “dragon of Budyňe”, actually a stuffed crocodile which the alchemist brought to the castle with him in 1518.