The castle park situated in the castle grounds acquired its present appearance in the 1830s. It was at that time that some buildings used for running the estate that had previously been on this site were replaced by a park in the English style. Of the original buildings, the castle riding school and the Renaissance Hozlaur House, also known as the Forest House, with the adjoining late-15th century granary, have been preserved.

 

The Hozlaur House was originally a single-storey house and had once been the residence of Jindřich Švamberk. It is named after a later owner, Petr Hozlaur of Hozlau, who sold it to Petr Vok of Rožmberk. Petr Vok had it transformed into offices for administering the estate. On the ground floor were forestry and agricultural offices and an apartment, and on the first floor more offices. In 1759 the architect Donato Morazzi transformed the small distillery that had been on the ground floor into apartments. The offices were also used for the administration of the forests belonging to the estate, which is why the building is also known as the Forest House.

 

Since 1992 a museum devoted to the sculptor Vladimír Preclík has been housed in the granary building.

 

From the town square a road led over a double-arched bridge – previously a drawbridge – through the gatehouse into the castle grounds and on towards the castle. On the first floor above the gateway was the apartment of the head steward, and below it on the ground floor two rooms for guests. The building had a machicolation underneath the roof and the windows only looked inwards to the courtyard. After passing through the gatehouse there is a house on the left for the gatekeeper, and a little further on there is another small house consisting of two rooms and a small kitchen. Originally, up until 1812, they were stables for officials' horses, and then they served as woodsheds until 1828. In that year the interior was converted into living quarters and later it served as a prison where subjects of the lord of the manor were held. It is still known as the jailhouse.

Today the Forest House and the gatehouse are used as offices and living quarters for staff.

 

Another building belonging to the castle is the former castle brewery, which since 1967 has been rented out to the Mikoláš Aleš South Bohemian Gallery.

 

In 1967, in connection with the local craftwork and training traditions and with the holding of the International Ceramics Symposia in the Czech Republic (from 1966 up to the present), a ceramics section of the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery was established in Bechyně, concentrating on modern Czech ceramics and work by artists from throughout the world who have taken part in the International Symposia held in Bechyně (B. Dobiáš, A. Kroupová, the Rada family, M. Taberyová, V. Šerák, L. Těhník, J. Viková, and others). This section of the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, known as the International Museum of Ceramics, is housed in the converted buildings of the former castle brewery and the adjoining ramparts.

Every year during the summer season the Museum is open to the public so they can view exhibitions displaying the results of the International Symposia and also exhibitions devoted to specific themes or artists, displaying various forms of older or contemporary ceramics and porcelain. Work from the oldest specialist ceramics school in the Czech lands, which is in Bechyně, is also presented here.