Zámek Chotěboř Chateau

The Castle Chotěboř stands on the northern edge of the town of Chotěboř, approximately fourteen kilometres northeast of Havlíčkův Brod. It is an early Baroque structure from the beginning of the eighteenth century and has been a cultural monument since nineteen sixty-three.

Chotěboř is first mentioned in twelve sixty-five. There were silver mines in the area and the town lay at the crossroads of major routes. Therefore, King John of Luxembourg purchased the settlement in thirteen twenty-nine and two years later elevated it to town status. On the site of today's castle stood a Gothic fortress, which archaeologists have documented. Who built it is unknown, most likely it was in the second half of the fourteenth century. It served mainly the economy and the administration of the estate, less so as a residence for the owners. By the middle of the seventeenth century it was deteriorating and in sixteen ninety-two it was probably destroyed by fire.

In sixteen ninety-eight the Kinský family acquired the estate. Between seventeen hundred and one and seventeen hundred and two a new castle with the Chapel of the Holy Trinity was built on the foundations of the fortress. The owners changed frequently afterwards, but the castle underwent only minor modifications. In eighteen thirty-six Jan Josef Dobrzenský acquired the estate through marriage. Since then the castle has belonged to the House of Dobřenský z Dobřenic, except for a break between nineteen forty-eight and nineteen ninety-two. In the second half of the nineteenth century, part of the first floor received a Neo-Renaissance appearance and an extensive English park was created. After a fire in nineteen twenty-seven the castle was restored and then acquired a small bell tower above the north wing. When the family emigrated in nineteen forty-eight, the state took over the castle. From nineteen fifty-two a municipal museum was housed in it until the end of twenty nineteen. The Dobřenský family received the castle back in nineteen ninety-two.

The castle is a single-storey four-winged building with a mansard roof. A nine-axis northern façade leads through a passage to an arcaded courtyard. From the south side a terrace with a double-flight staircase leads into the garden. The eastern wing has thicker walls and Gothic cellars which remained from the original fortress. It also contains the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, preserved in its eighteenth-century form, with a Baroque portal, frescoes and stucco decoration.

Around the castle extends a landscaped park covering approximately fifteen hectares. In it you will find the Upper and Lower Castle ponds and a lime tree avenue. There also stands a Classical manor house and several protected sculptural works. These include the tombstone of Knight Jan Pavel from Brachfeld and his wife Johana from eighteen thirteen and a sandstone fountain with a semi-figure of a man bearing a bowl. Further a Baroque statue of Saint John of Nepomuk from seventeen twenty, transferred from the village of Jilem, and a statue of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia by the Chrudim sculptor Jan Kalouse. The park is completed by a cast-iron cross with the Dobřenský coat of arms and the date eighteen seventy-two.