Úsobí Chateau

The Úsobí Castle stands on the shore of Panský rybník, almost in the very center of the market town of Úsobí in the Vysočina region, by the road from Chyška to Herálec. The Úsobský potok stream flows tight around the castle. As a cultural monument, it has been protected since 1958.

The first written mention of Úsobí dates from 1307. At that time, the local estate was acquired from the Rozemberks by the Prague bishops and archbishops. They held it until 1436, when it passed to the Trčka family of Lípa. They ruled there the longest of all, almost one hundred seventy years, until 1601.

According to some sources, a water fortress was built in the middle of the sixteenth century at the confluence of two streams as the first lordly residence. However, it is documented only in 1622. The estate had belonged to the Štubíks of Königstein for two decades at that time. They sold it in 1628. Over the following hundred years, several owners succeeded each other, but none of them left a more significant mark.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the fortress was transformed into a late Baroque castle. In 1751, František Jošt, also called Jodok, Baron Göldin of Tiefenau, a man of fifteen children, purchased the estate. According to some sources, he himself carried out the reconstruction. In 1757, he had a chapel of Our Lady of Help, Saint Florian and Saint Donatus established in the northeastern wing. However, his son brought the estate to ruin. In 1785, Martin Leopold Fučikovský of Grünhof therefore acquired it at an auction, and Úsobí experienced rapid development under him. Around 1830, the castle, along with the chapel, underwent an Empire style reconstruction, and an orangery was established in the castle park at that time.

From 1903, the castle belonged to the couple Ludvík and Jenny Wessely. Jenny, whose maiden name was Johanna, was the daughter of industrialist Emil Škoda. In 1935, the family sold the castle to Robert Stangler, the owner of the nearby castle in Věž. Stangler, however, paid only a small part of the price. Antonín Imlauf paid most of it, as he wanted to spend his retirement there. The relations between the two men soon became complicated, as Stangler did not fulfill his obligations and demanded further concessions and loans. In 1947, Stangler died. Before the inheritance could be settled, the castle was nationalized in 1948.

Subsequently, a long-term care facility was moved there from the hospital in Havlíčkův Brod, and the castle gradually fell into decay. In 1992, descendants of Robert Stangler acquired it through restitution. A year later, they sold it to a company from Třebíč, which did not carry out its plans and went bankrupt. For six years the castle then stood unused and open to vandals. In 1999, the current owner purchased it at an auction and had it completely restored.