The Plasy Monastery was founded in 1144 by Duke Vladislav II as one of the oldest Cistercian monasteries in Bohemia. Monks from the Franconian Langheim settled Plasy. During the Hussites Wars in the first half of the 15th century buildings of the abbey were burnt out and almost all the goods were subsequently taken.
The monastery experienced a second period of prosperity after the Thirty Years‘ War: the baroque new buildings of the monastery, the large foursided courtyards and the pilgrimage church of Marianske Tynice are still characteristic of the landscape today – as are extensive agricultural areas for grain and fruit cultivation.
In 1826, the monastery building with the whole estate was purchased by Klemens von Metternich, who is buried in the Church of Saint Wenceslaus in the family tomb.
Linderhof is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.
Ludwig II, who was crowned king in 1864, began his building activities in 1867-1868 by redesigning his rooms in the Munich Residenz and laying the foundation stone of Neuschwanstein Castle. In 1868 he was already making his first plans for Linderhof. However, neither the palace modelled on Versailles that was to be sited on the floor of the valley nor the large Byzantine palace envisaged by Ludwig II were ever built.
Instead, the new building developed around the forester's house belonging to his father Maximilian II, which was located in the open space in front of the present palace and was used by the king when crown prince on hunting expeditions with his father.