zámek Planá Chateau

The castle Planá in Tachov is located in the place of the medieval Gothic castle, the foundation of which was probably established in the 13th century. Its original form was out of elegance: it consisted of a rectangular palace and an eight-storey tower, whose destination - whether the builders thought it as a bergfrit or a donjon - is now not sure. The first known owner of the castle was Dobrohost z Plané in the middle of the 14th century.

A fundamental transformation has seen the castle in the Renaissance. In the middle of the 16th century, when it was owned by Mořic Šlik, an ambitious reconstruction started from the Gothic castle to the Renaissance castle. The Šlik family continued to make modifications and had the facades and interiors modified in the late Renaissance spirit at the beginning of the 17th century. But the Thirty Years' War has left its mark - the castle has been attacked by both warring parties.

After 1665, the castle comes into the hands of the Sinzendorfs, who make it Baroque. The last significant private owners, Count Nosticové, owned it from 1822 to 1948 and gradually modernise it - they empires the baroque south wing and land economic and administrative buildings. The last private residents, Karel Ervinus (1850-1911) and his son Josef (1878-1946), lived here and are buried in nearby family tombs.

After nationalization in 1948 until 1991, he was inhabited by the Border Guard. Mathilda Nostitz, the granddaughter of the last owner who was born and lived in the castle until she was 12 years old, tried to restitution in 1992 - unsuccessfully. State funds protected it and sold the castle two months later. But private ownership did not save it - it gradually fades.

Since 2013, the castle has been on the list of endangered cultural monuments. The construction survey found a critical condition: some structures, in particular beam painted ceilings, are located in an emergency state. The auctions were not successful - they offered it for CZK 1.3 million in 2015, only 650 thousand in 2017. In the hours of night from 10 to 11 November 2017, he was hit by a massive fire. Since 2020 it has been owned by the company Castle Planá and draws support from the Ministry of Culture emergency fund.

The castle remains among the least explored mansions in the west of Bohemia - it lacks deep building-historical and archaeological research. The historical interest deserves both as a multi-layer architectural palimpsest from Gothic to Renaissance to Classicism, and as a witness of the fate of Czech property in the 20th century. In 1634, Field Marshal Albrecht of Valdštejn briefly slept here on his way to Cheb.