Kozel Chateau

Kozel was built between 1784 and 1789 for Count Jan Vojtech Cernin as a hunting lodge to designs by Ignac Palliardi - a low single-storey block round a square courtyard, restrained and symmetrical, with a chapel, riding hall and stables added by Ignac Jan Palliardi and Vaclav Haberditz shortly after. What distinguishes it is that nothing much happened to it afterwards: no nineteenth-century remodelling, no rebuilding, so the interiors are the original classicist scheme with their furniture, stoves, wallpapers and paintings in place, which makes it one of the more coherent late-eighteenth-century interiors in the country. The riding hall is used for concerts and the stables hold carriages. Around it lies an English landscape park of about forty hectares with old oaks and a network of rides, laid out with the house and largely intact.

What you actually see

• A single-storey classicist block - built 1784-1789 around a square courtyard.
• Original interiors - furniture, stoves, wallpapers and paintings as installed.
• A riding hall and stables - with a carriage collection, used for concerts.
• A forty-hectare English park - old oaks and rides laid out with the house.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only, seasonal, closed in winter. Several routes with separate tickets. The house is modest in scale - the appeal is coherence, not grandeur. Concerts close the riding hall.

Nearby

Plzen and its brewery are fifteen kilometres north-west.