zámek Kamenice Chateau

Chateau Kamenice is located in the village of the same name in the district of Praha-východ, protected as a cultural monument. The creation of the building dates back to the period when a medieval fortress stood in the same place. The first documented owner, the Ratmir of Kamenice, is mentioned in 1266. Over the following centuries, the fortress gradually acquired different families - belonged to the New Town of Prague, later won by Ferdinand I., and was then owned, for example, by Lobkovics, Pavel Michna of Vacín or the descendants of other noble families.

The year 1763 became the key периодом in the history of the building, when Kamenice became the summer residence of Prague Archbishops. During their nearly 100-year ownership, the fort was converted into a chateau. This conversion was completed in 1860 when the chateau was purchased by Prague industrialist František Ringhoffer II. His son, František Ringhoffer III, had the construction completely converted into a representative residence in 1875-1880. The reconstruction was led by architect Jiří Stibral and dedicated to the style of New English Gothic, with the chateau surrounded by a forest park.

The construction represents a one-storey rectangular building with eleven window axes on the main facade, decorated with champagne and mantelpiece. The facade divides the risality with double windows and battlements. The entrance porticus in the square plan consists of two columns. The eastern facade was equipped with a high prism tower and a smaller square corner tower. The interior contains valuable architectural elements - terrazzo, iron railing staircase, vaulted ceilings and original interior shutters.

1945 brought a major break. The property of the Ringhoffer was confiscated. In the next two years, the chateau became part of the so-called Action of the Chateau, when the educator Přemysl Pitter used it to save children from German concentration and Czech internment camps. German children were mainly housed in the chateau and 810 children were saved by means of projects on five locks. After the war, in 1949-1997, he served as a primary school. The municipality then sold it to a private owner - the Engineering Kamenice, who wants to build a teaching centre here.

The interior of the chateau has suffered considerable damage. During the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the original mobility was partly stolen, part transferred to local schools. The insensitive reconstruction of the Italian investor caused the most serious damage. Nevertheless, the architectural elements and the square entry porticus are preserved.

The chateau is surrounded by an English-style park on an area of four hectares, which in the nineteenth century passed smoothly into the surrounding countryside. A cross with the crucified from 1810, erected by Archbishop Wilhelm Salm, was preserved from the park decoration. In the park there is a neo-gothic garden pavilion with a bunk tower. After 1945 the park gradually faded - the fountain and the party disappeared. Near there is the church of St. Francis Serafinsky, an 11-blood early Gothic temple from the 14th century, rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century also by Jiří Stibrál. The church is a protected cultural monument and remains in the property of the Catholic Church, which organizes Saturday services.