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Be�ov nad Teplou is a town situated in west Bohemia in the middle of a spa triangle of Karlovy Vary - Mari�nsk� L�zn� - Franti�kovy L�zn�, 17 km south of Karlovy Vary / 130 km west of Prague /.

The castle was built by R�zmburks in the beginning of the 14th century. Its function was the protection of an important crossroads of trading routes. The castle rises above a deep valley on a rocky hill-top which the Tepl� River flows around on both sides. During the Hussite wars, the castle was captured and occupied by the Hussites. After the year 1500, the Pluhs of Rab�tejn carried out its extensive reconstruction. Due to their participation in the Czech Estates uprising against the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I., Be�ov was confiscated from them and then held in lien by a number of families. During the Thirty Years War, the castle was captured by the Swedes and started to become desolate, it hasn’t become a mansion anymore. In 1753, Dominik of Kounice had the settlement round the castle rebuilt into a baroque chateau with a chapel of octagonal floor-plan. Under the last owners, the Beaufort-Spontin family, a neo-gothic reconstruction was to be carried out based on the projects of Z�tek and Mocker. It never took place and thus both the castle and the chateau remained preserved in the original form. The most valuable preserved part of the castle is the Chapel of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary from the year 1400 with original frescos depicting seventeen biblical scenes.

From the 1970s to 1991, an extensive reconstruction of the whole chateau was carried out. Nowadays, the History and Importance of Reliquaries exhibition can be visited here. The most prominent exhibit is the unique Romanesque reliquary of St. Maur, which was found in 1985 in the chateau chapel. Alfred de Beaufort bought the 12th century reliquary, had it repaired and then brought to Be�ov. At the end of World War II, the Beauforts, who were active collaborators with the Nazis, had buried the reliquary beneath the floor in the chapel before they hurriedly fled from the castle and chateau as they expected to come back soon. The valuable relic lied under the floor for more than forty years. In the 1980s, the Czechoslovak criminologists got the information that a certain foreign businessman offers to intermediate the export of the by then forgotten reliquary. After an extensive investigation in the archives and examination of those who remembered, a few places where the reliquary could be hidden were determined. On 5 November 1985, the reliquary was finally found, covered with bottles of wine and cognac. About sixty experts from Bohemia as well as from abroad took part in its restoration. Since May 2002, the reliquary has been exhibited in a special safe room of the Be�ov chateau.