Between the 13th. and 17th. centuries Křivoklàt was the centre of a forested Royal castle complex in the river Bernouka region. Křivoklàt was documented for the first time in 1110 in the Cosmos Chronicle under its original name “Hradek”.
In the 12th. and 13th. centuries Křivoklàt became part of the nearby Zbetschno court hunting grounds. Work on the significant royal castle in its present form probably began around 1230 towards the end of the reign of Prmysl Otokkars I or in the first years of the reign of his successor Wenzel I. The consecration of the castle chapel in 1287 marks the completion of construction work on the “catellum novum” as the castle is named in documents of the time. In the first half of the 13th.century Křivoklàt is one of a group of stone castles which replaced obsolete early medieval castle walls.
In the second half of the 13th.century Prmysl Ottokar II promoted Krivoklat to one of the preferred castle residences of the Bohemian kings. The young king Karl IV was educated here in 1316 and from 1319-1323.
In 1423 Křivoklàt was pledged to Alesch Holicky von Sternberg. However in 1454 the castle was returned again to the crown. From 1526 the rulers of the house of Habsburg often used the castle during the hunting season.
Between 1559 and 1564 the imperial governor Archduke Ferdinand von Tirol , who had secretly married Philippine Welser, found refuge in the castle.
Křivoklàt was also used as a state prison and between 1548 and 1564 Jan Augusta, Bishop of the Bohemian Unified Brethren and in 1591 Edward Kelly the court alchemist were imprisoned here.
 

Before and after the fire of 1643

In 1686 Ernst Josef von Wallenstein purchased the castle and the sovereignty of Křivoklát. His granddaughter Maria Anna brought the castle as a dowry into her marriage with Josef Wilhelm von Fürstenberg.
 

Up until 1929 the castle remained the property of the Fürstenberg family who finally sold the complex to the Czech-Slovakian state who then installed a museum.