Buchlovice Chateau

Buchlovice was built between 1707 and 1738 for Jan Detrich of Petrvald, to designs by Domenico Martinelli, reportedly as a gift for his Italian wife, and it was laid out in the manner of a Roman suburban villa: two curved single-storey wings facing each other across an oval court, with a formal garden on the slope, an orangery and a flower garden - an arrangement much closer to Italian practice than to the usual Central European block. The interiors are furnished from several periods with the Berchtold collections. The park around, about twenty hectares, holds specimen trees and, in the flower garden and glasshouses, the largest fuchsia collection in the country, several hundred varieties, which flowers through the summer and is the reason many Czech visitors come. Peacocks walk the grounds. In 1908 a meeting here between the Austro-Hungarian and Russian foreign ministers is remembered in the house.

History

The area was lived in as early as the Stone Age, and Buchlovice is first recorded in 1270; in 1540 it became part of the estate of Buchlov Castle. Early in the 18th century the owners, finding the old fortress too uncomfortable for a grand residence, decided to replace it, and Jan Dětřich of Petřvald had Buchlovice built between 1707 and 1738 to the designs of the Italian architect Domenico Martinelli, on the model of an Italian villa: a ceremonial Lower Château and a service Upper Château facing each other across a courtyard of honour, set in an Italian garden that was extended in the English style in the first half of the 19th century. The heiress Theresia of Petřvald married Count Prosper Anton Berchtold, and the Berchtolds owned the estate from 1763 until 1945, adding an English landscape garden of 18 hectares (Wikipedia, Buchlovice Castle).

Highlights

• Two curved wings on an oval court - an Italian villa arrangement, rare here.
• A national fuchsia collection - several hundred varieties in the flower garden.
• Furnished Berchtold interiors - collections across several periods.
• A twenty-hectare park - specimen trees, an orangery and free-ranging peacocks.

When to go

May to September, for the fuchsias. Half a day.

Before you go

Guided tours only for the interiors, seasonal, with several routes. The garden is included but the glasshouses keep their own hours. Closed Mondays. Busy on summer weekends.

Nearby

Buchlov castle is three kilometres above; Velehrad is south-east.

Key facts