Mradice Castle

The castle is located on the west edge of Mradic, about three and a half kilometres southwest of Postoloprt in the Lounia district. Since 1964 it has been protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. The main castle building and part of the park are preserved from the original premises; Economic objects - stables, barn and granary - were demolished during the 1980s.

First of all, the paradox of the castle is: it is not known when it was created. Older topography of the landscape from the first half of the nineteenth century, including maps of Ponfiklov (1828) and Sommer (1846), do not mention it at all. In fact, Sommer's country science speaks only of the "Economic Court." Similarly, the chateau was not written in the Extensive Vlastiscience of Žatecký county (1904- 1908), which devotes considerable space to Mradice. Even the academic inventory of Czech monuments from the 1970s does not know of any castle in Mradic.

Only since January 1964, when the entire premises of the Economic Court were placed under the protection of the State, the residential building received the designation "castle." It is assumed to come from the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although this duration is based only on the assumption. The commemorative catalogue allegedly dates the construction to 1802 and attaches a neo-gothic character to it, but even this date is not supported by any written document - and the existing facade has nothing to do with neo-gothic. The first reliable written mention dates back to 1833.

According to Paul Vlček, the building could have been built in the late eighteenth century, when Mradice was part of the estate Steknik and belonged to Count Jan Kullánek of Klaudenštejn. The key reconstruction took place after 1878 when the castle belonged to the Langs family. It was at that time that the building was assigned a neo-gothic facade, which so far significantly determines its appearance. During the first Czechoslovak Republic, the object underwent a number of other changes that radically transformed its character. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, a gradual reconstruction of the building has taken place.

The visitor here comes across a rarity story: a building that the old chroniclers basically didn't see until the state named it "the castle." The origin of his transformation remains in the silent unknown - the history of Mradic has learned to read this object as a cultural footprint. The visit offers not only a view of an architecturally interesting building with neo-gothic elements, but also an opportunity to think about how the landscape reads its own memory.