Veltrusy Chateau

Veltrusy was built from 1716 for the Chotek family on a cross-shaped plan with a central domed hall and four arms, standing in the Vltava floodplain, and it has an unusual claim: in 1754 Empress Maria Theresa was received here at what is generally described as the first trade fair in Europe, when Bohemian manufacturers displayed goods in the grounds. The park around it is the real scale of the place - about three hundred hectares of landscape park laid out from the 1760s in the English manner, one of the earliest in Central Europe, with floodplain forest, water channels, meadows and a scatter of garden buildings: a temple of friendship, an Egyptian cabinet, a Doric temple, a mill, a grotto and an orangery. The 2002 flood submerged the whole estate and did severe damage; restoration has taken two decades and continues. Interiors show the Chotek collections.

What you actually see

• A cross-plan baroque house - four arms round a central domed hall.
• A 300-hectare English park - among the earliest in Central Europe.
• Scattered garden buildings - temples, a grotto, an Egyptian cabinet and a mill.
• The 1754 trade fair site - often called the first in Europe.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Honest expectations

The 2002 flood damage is still being repaired and some buildings are closed or scaffolded. The park is large and needs a bike or a long walk. Interiors are guided and seasonal. Mosquitoes on the floodplain.

Nearby

Nelahozeves is upstream; Melnik is north.