Horsovsky Tyn

Horsovsky Tyn began as a castle of the bishops of Prague in the 1250s, and the fragment that survives from that phase is the reason art historians come: an early Gothic chapel with a ribbed vault, wall paintings and window tracery of the 1260s, among the earliest Gothic interiors in Bohemia and largely intact. After a fire in 1547 the castle was remodelled by Italian builders for the Lobkowicz family into a Renaissance chateau round an arcaded courtyard, and later owners, the Trauttmansdorffs, furnished it through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interiors survived with their contents. Around it lies an English landscape park of about forty hectares laid out from the 1780s, one of the older in Bohemia, with garden buildings, ponds and a loreto chapel. The town below has a long sloping square with arcades.

History

The Old Czech týn meant a fortified settlement, and the town's name means "Horšov's týn", after nearby Horšov, from which it was first run. A merchant village probably stood here in the 10th century on the route from Prague to Regensburg; in 973 Duke Boleslaus II gave the area to the newly founded bishopric of Prague, and the town is first mentioned in 1184. In the mid-13th century it overtook Horšov, a castle was built and it became the seat of the estate; Charles IV made it a town and allowed walls, but they never closed the whole circuit, and the town was taken in the Hussite wars between 1422 and 1431. The Lobkowicz family bought the estate in 1542 and made it one of the ten largest in Bohemia; after a fire in 1547 the town was rebuilt in Renaissance style, and after the Bohemian revolt of 1620 the estate was confiscated. After the Thirty Years' War it passed to the Counts of Trauttmansdorff, who held the castle until 1945, and the town's houses took on the Baroque and Rococo look still seen today. The railway arrived in 1900 (Wikipedia, Horšovský Týn).

What you'll find

• An early Gothic chapel - vault, tracery and paintings of the 1260s, largely intact.
• A Renaissance arcaded courtyard - the Italian remodelling after the 1547 fire.
• Furnished interiors - Trauttmansdorff rooms with their contents in place.
• A forty-hectare landscape park - laid out from the 1780s with garden buildings.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

Guided tours only, on several routes, and seasonal. The chapel is on a specific route - check which. Closed Mondays. The park is free and open all year.

Nearby

Domazlice and the Chodsko region are south; Cesky les is west.