Nový Zámek Castle

New castle from the center of Zahrádky

New lock after the fire

Nový zámek even Nový Vítkovec (German Neuschloß ), the Baroque - Castle in Zahrádky (Neugarten) in northern Bohemia ( Czech Republic called). The castle is surrounded by one of the most important English parks in the Czech Republic. In 2003 the castle building was almost completely destroyed by a major fire.

history

The Nový Vítkovec castle complex was first mentioned in 1376 as the New House on the rock spur above the Robitz brook . The owners were the Lords of Mniechov (Miechow), who sold the castle to the Lords of Wartenberg after 1480 . They rebuilt the complex in the years 1547–1550 and built a stately renaissance castle , which was considered the largest and most magnificent in Bohemia at the time . In 1575 the mansion, which had been converted into a fiefdom of the Bohemian crown in 1547 , became a free allod property again and was named Neuschloß .

After the Battle of the White Mountain , Johann Georg von Wartenberg from the Tetschen line, who in 1617 had asserted his claims to the manor after a long dispute against other family members, was expropriated. In 1623 Albrecht von Waldstein became the owner, who carried out some baroque alterations and had the dead straight linden avenue laid across the Fasanerie into the Gründeltal. After his assassination in 1634, Neuschloß with the rule of Bohemian Leipa was the only one of his confiscated possessions that his widow Isabella Katharina, née Countess Harrach, was left as a widow's seat. Her daughter, Princess Maria Elisabeth von Friedland (1626–1662), married Rudolf Freiherr von Kaunitz in 1645, whose family gained great fame at the time of Maria Theresa through the Austrian state chancellor and opponent of Frederick the Great, Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz . In the following years, new acquisitions led to the later land table estate Neuschloß with Bohemian Leipa and Hauska and the Fideikommissherrschaft Neuschloß-Leipa was established. At the end of the 18th century, Neuschloß was rebuilt in the Baroque style and retained its appearance until after the expropriation in 1945. (Hans Ulrich Engel: Burgen und Schlösser in Böhmen - Based on old templates, Frankfurt am Main, 2nd edition 1978, ISBN 3 8035 8013 7 , p. 49, ill. P. 175)

Under Michael Karl Josef Graf von Kaunitz, his son Vinzenz was a great patron of the natural sciences and the astronomer Alois Martin David stayed several times as a guest of the house in the castle. In the 19th century, parts of the area were also redesigned in a romantic way. A typical example of this is the artificial rock castle Jiljov (Veilchenburg). The nearby Höllengrund was also developed with paths and a boat trip through the rocky gorge was set up.

After the death of Albrecht von Kaunitz (1829-1897), the castle came into the possession of his eldest daughter Marie (* March 28, 1855, † January 18, 1918) married to Egon Karl Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst . After Marie Princess zu Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst was widowed and got into financial difficulties, she had to sell Neuschloss to the husband of her sister Eleonore Countess Kaunitz, Géza Graf Andràssy . He gave it to his daughter Marizza Countess Andrassy, ​​who was married to Johannes Prince von und zu Liechtenstein . Marizza Liechtenstein, in turn, gave Neuschloß to her sons Emanuel and Johannes Liechtenstein in equal parts in 1936. In 1945, after the end of the Second World War, the Liechtenstein family was expropriated without compensation and Czechoslovakia became the owners of the entire palace complex. The manor house of the castle was converted into a state property during the communist era , and the castle itself was used by the Czech Charles University in Prague as a training center. As such, the castle was only partially accessible to the public. In 1992 a hotel was established in the castle.

Information board in front of the castle

On January 30, 2003, a fire broke out in the roof structure of Neuschloss, which quickly spread across the entire roof area. The entire castle building was almost completely destroyed by falling rubble and penetrating fire fighting water. Due to the force of the collapsing roof area, the floor slabs partially broke through to the ground floor. The damage caused was estimated at over 100 million Czech crowns (approx. 3.5 million euros).

The restoration of the castle has so far been limited to safety measures, so an emergency roof was built in 2003. The Zahrádky parish in the Czech Republic started a fundraising campaign for the reconstruction.

Castle Park

The castle park is one of the most important of its kind in the Czech Republic. It is home to 20 species of conifers and 17 different species of deciduous trees . The western half of the park became the property of the state estate after 1945, and a high iron fence has since divided the complex into two halves. This part of the park is now overgrown and no longer recognizable as such. The reconstruction of the orangery on the north side of the park began in 2002, but was canceled after the fire in the castle.

Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 8.5 ″  N , 14 ° 31 ′ 30.1 ″  E