Dobris Chateau

Dobris was rebuilt between 1745 and 1765 for the Mansfeld family to designs attributed to the French architect Jules Robert de Cotte and carried out with Italian and Austrian craftsmen, producing one of the few genuinely rococo country houses in Bohemia - a three-winged block round a court, with painted interiors, a mirrored hall and a chapel. The formal garden behind is the piece that survives best: a French parterre on terraces with a sala terrena, a balustraded retaining wall, an orangery and a large amount of sandstone statuary by Ignac Platzer, arranged on an axis rising away from the house. Beyond it an English landscape park was added in the nineteenth century with ponds and specimen trees. The house passed to the Colloredo-Mansfeld family, was nationalised, and was returned to their descendants in 1998; it now works as a museum, hotel and restaurant.

What to look for

• A rococo interior - painted rooms, a mirrored hall and a chapel of the 1750s.
• A French terraced garden - parterre, sala terrena and Platzer's sandstone figures.
• An English park behind - added in the nineteenth century with ponds.
• Restituted in 1998 - held again by the Colloredo-Mansfeld family.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Practical notes

Interiors are seen on a guided tour with fixed times; the garden is a separate ticket. Parts of the house are hotel and event space and close without notice. Seasonal opening.

Nearby

Brdy begins south-west; Pribram and Svata Hora are south.

Key facts