Ploskovice Chateau

Ploskovice was built between 1720 and 1730 for Anna Maria Franziska of Tuscany, a Medici by marriage, to designs by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, as a summer residence on flat ground north of Litomerice. Its unusual element is below the main floor: a set of grottoes built into the terrace, walls and vaults encrusted with tufa, shells and stones, with water conducted through them to drip and run, so the rooms are cool and damp - an artificial cave made as a summer retreat from the heat, a fashion of the period of which few examples survive in this condition. The upper interiors were remodelled in the 1850s for Ferdinand V, the abdicated emperor, who spent summers here, and are furnished to that period with a good deal of surviving decoration. There is a formal garden with fountains and an English park behind it.

What you actually see

• Grottoes under the terrace - tufa and shell encrustation with water running through.
• A Dientzenhofer summer house - built 1720-1730 for a Medici duchess.
• 1850s imperial interiors - furnished for the abdicated Ferdinand V.
• A formal garden - fountains and parterres with an English park beyond.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only, seasonal, closed in winter. The grottoes are on a separate route and are genuinely damp and cool. Closed Mondays. The village is small.

Nearby

Litomerice is five kilometres away; Terezin and the Elbe are close.