Hloubětín Chateau

The Hloubětín Chateau in Prague 9 is a neo-gothic architectural monument consisting of a single-storey building with a distinctive three-storey tower. Although it comes from the second half of the 19th century, it is assumed that the very core of the construction could have been of much older origin. The chateau is listed on the list of cultural monuments of the Czech Republic.

The history of the site dates back to the Middle Ages. In the place of today's chateau there was a fortress which was fired by the Swedes in 1648. The modern form was acquired only in the 1970s, when the land was purchased by the land attorney JUDr. Václav Linhart. He built a Neo-Baroque villa here designated as his family's mansion, but soon sold it. One of the most important later owners was JUDr. František Sedláček, who began to transform the building into a neo-gothic chateau. An interesting figure among the owners was the Karlin landowner Vladimír Židlický, who had the facade decorated by his own made-up coat of arms and made a sound on the corner with a boundary wall equipped with a battlements.

Before World War II, the chateau belonged to a Jewish village. He was expropriated during the German occupation. After the war, the building served as a carpentry shop and warehouse. From 1945 to 1959 it had the headquarters of the village theatre, which subsequently worked under the name State Tours Theatre until 1962. Since 1969, the building has served as a house of pioneers.

A new chapter in its history brought back the Jewish village in 1990. The municipality rented the building to a private gynecology and assisted reproduction health facility. This step led to an important initiative - the launch of the first Babybox in the Czech Republic on 1 June 2005. Babybox has become a place of salvation for mothers in crisis. During nearly 15 years of its operation in Hloubětín 28 children were saved. Families with children born after successful artificial insemination used to meet each year at the chateau. With the transfer of the medical facility GynCentrum to Libna, Babybox also moved; since 5 December 2019 works at the Royal Vinohrady University Hospital.

The chateau became famous in cinema. He appeared in the film Pastik (1968 / 1990) and later in television series - in the 47th episode of Life in the Chateau, in the 6th episode of the Cop, in the 15th episode of the Criminals of the Angel, and in particular in the 13th episode of the Cop and the infant, who devoted herself to stories about the Babybox.

In the immediate neighbourhood of the chateau there is a crucifixion church in the northeast part of St. George with a former cemetery and a nearby crucifixion court, which adds another layer of historical depth to the site.