zámek Valeč Chateau

Valeč is a castle transformed into a chateau and is protected as a cultural monument. The oldest noble residence in Valeč was a fortress from the fourteenth century on a rocky hill in today's chateau park. An oval fortified mound surrounded by a moat and rampart has been preserved from it. No walls are visible on it, but archaeologists found the corner of a stone building.

In the fifteenth century, the Valečský family from Doupov built a late Gothic castle on the site of today's chateau with a square ground plan. Its two palaces are still hidden in the walls of the chateau, the older one in the eastern wing and the younger one in the southern wing. Several windows and portals remain from them.

The first written mention dates from the year fifteen twenty-six. The document was created when settling the inheritance after Kyšperský z Vřesovic, who fell in the Battle of Mohács. Valeč was then inherited by Hugo z Leisnecku and in fifteen thirty-eight he gained it through marriage to his daughter by Vilém Hasištejnský z Lobkovic. In fifteen seventy Kryštof Štampach ze Štampachu purchased the estate. His son Václav had the chateau rebuilt in the Renaissance style in fifteen eighty-five. He was a Protestant and refused to convert to the Catholic faith. Because of this and because of his participation in the Estates' Revolt, he had to flee the country in sixteen twenty-eight. His Catholic wife Barbora Štampachová z Poutnova, however, bought back the confiscated estate in sixteen twenty-three.

In sixteen ninety-four Valeč was inherited by the Kager family from Globen. They turned it into a two-story Baroque chateau with four wings around a rectangular courtyard. The construction was led by Francesco Barelli, Antonio Bianno Rossa and after his death Jan Kryštof Tyll. The sculptural workshop of Matyáš Bernarda Braun participated in the decoration. Even when the estate was sold in seventeen ninety-seven, a debt to them of eight hundred ten florins and fifty-four kreutzers was listed.

In the nineteenth century the chateau underwent Neo-Renaissance and then Neo-Baroque reconstruction. The last aristocratic owner was Jan Larisch-Mönnich, who purchased the chateau in nineteen thirty-seven and lost it in nineteen forty-five based on the Beneš Decrees. After the war, military veterans and children from Korea lived here, and later it was a children's home. In nineteen seventy-six the chateau caught fire. Today it is managed by the National Heritage Institute and the chateau is gradually being restored.

The eastern façade is decorated in the corners with two towers. Inside are two large halls. The smaller one has a mirror vault and stucco decoration from the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The larger hall has a barrel vault with Baroque stucco and a ceiling fresco of classical gods from the nineteenth century.