Konopiste Chateau

Konopiste is a medieval castle rebuilt repeatedly and finally, from 1887, remodelled for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este into a modern residence with electricity, lifts, running water and central heating - unusually advanced for the period. He lived here with Sophie Chotek and their children, and the rooms are shown essentially as they were when he last left in June 1914, which gives the place its particular character. He was an obsessive hunter and record-keeper: his tallies run to around three hundred thousand animals shot, and the corridors are hung with tens of thousands of trophies, many labelled with date and place, which most visitors find overwhelming and some find distasteful. He also assembled a large collection of St George imagery, thousands of pieces, shown in a separate room. There is a rose garden, a park with ponds and a bear enclosure.

History

Konopiště was apparently founded around 1294 by the Prague bishop Tobiáš of Benešov, as a Gothic fortification after the French model, rectangular with round towers projecting from the corners. The Benešovic family owned it in 1318, it passed to the Šternberks in 1327, and in 1468 the troops of George of Poděbrady took it after a siege of almost two years. Dorota Hodějovská of Hodějov bought the estate in 1603 and gave the old castle Renaissance alterations; later owners included Albrecht von Wallenstein and Adam Michna of Vacínov, whose serfs rose against him and seized Konopiště in 1657. The Swedes occupied and plundered it in 1648, and the Vrtba family bought the run-down building and after 1725 made it a Baroque château: a stone bridge replaced the drawbridge, a new entrance with a gate by František Maxmilián Kaňka and statues from Matthias Braun's workshop was opened near the east tower, the great hall received mythological and allegorical ceiling frescoes, and Lazar Wildmann carved the marble fireplaces, while in 1746 the upper levels of four towers were taken down and one tower demolished. Archduke Franz Ferdinand bought Konopiště in 1887 and had Josef Mocker repair it between 1889 and 1894 into a luxurious residence, which he preferred to the Belvedere in Vienna, and the English landscape garden of 225 ha, with terraces, a rose garden and statues, was laid out at the same time (Wikipedia, Konopiště Castle).

Highlights

• Rooms as left in June 1914 - the archduke's residence kept as it was.
• Tens of thousands of trophies - hung in the corridors and labelled.
• The St George collection - thousands of depictions in one room.
• A rose garden and park - with ponds and a bear enclosure below.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Before you go

Several separate guided routes, each its own ticket, and they sell out in summer. The trophy corridors are confronting - a lot of dead animals. Closed Mondays and in winter.

Nearby

Benesov is three kilometres away; Cesky Sternberk is east.

Key facts