Krásný Dvur
Encyclopedia
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
chateau in North Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. It has a 250 acres (1 km²) English-style landscape park and a garden inspired by that of Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
.
History
The first records of Krasný Dvůr date back to the 14th century, since then numerous aristocratic families (e.g. Kolowrats) held possession of it until Count Hermann Czernin von und zu ChudenitzCzernin von und zu Chudenitz
The Czernin family is one of the oldest and most important dynasties originating in Bohemia, present-day Czech Republic.- History :The family is descended from the clan of "Drslavice", like several other Bohemian families. The first known bearer of the family name was "Comes" and Camerarius regis ...
bought it in the middle of the 17th century. Count Franz Josef Czernin von und zu Chudenitz
Czernin von und zu Chudenitz
The Czernin family is one of the oldest and most important dynasties originating in Bohemia, present-day Czech Republic.- History :The family is descended from the clan of "Drslavice", like several other Bohemian families. The first known bearer of the family name was "Comes" and Camerarius regis ...
decided to start an extensive reconstruction on a Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
villa built on the site of a Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
stronghold originally constructed by Jan Maštovský of Kolovraty at the end of the 16th century.
The reconstruction project was undertaken by well-known Czech architect František Maxmilián Kaňka
František Maxmilián Kanka
František Maxmilián Kaňka was a Czech architect and builder.He is most famous for reconstructions of palaces and castles of Bohemian noblemen and for designs of churches and other religious buildings, principally in Baroque style...
and was distinctly influenced by the French architecture; construction went on between 1720 and 1724. Some alterations of Chateau buildings were made at the end of the 18th century (in 1783 the chapel was erected, in 1791–92 two-pair staircases were built in the court and in the northern garden and ground arcades were walled at the same time.)
Exhibition
Eighteen rooms and lobby galleries are open to the public. Excellent and very valuable paintings of Czech and European artists are installed here (some of the most well-known being Petr BrandlPetr Brandl
Petr Brandl was a painter of the late Baroque, famous in his time but - due to isolation behind the Iron Curtain - rather forgotten until recently. He was of German-speaking Austrian descent in the bilingual kingdom of Bohemia...
, Karel Škréta
Karel Škréta
Karel Škréta or Carolus Creten was a Czech Baroque painter.- Biography :His full name is Karel Škréta Šotonovský ze Závořic. Karel learnt painting perhaps from one of the masters at the royal courtyard. He studied in Saxony and in Italy...
, Ludvík Kohl, Josef Bergler, Filip Kristian Benthum, Kristian Brand, Alžběta Vigée-Lebrun and a number of others), and a number of graphic arts, porcelain, china, glass, earthenware, clocks, original Adam fireplaces, furniture and other samples of historical craftsmen's skills are to be seen. Some thematic collections are also remarkable (e.g. an extensive Baroque pictorial anthology of dog-portrayals by artist Petr Václav.
Park
The park in Krásný Dvůr, the area of which amounts to 250 acres (1 km²), was founded in 1783–1793 by Johann Rudolf Czernin von und zu ChudenitzCzernin von und zu Chudenitz
The Czernin family is one of the oldest and most important dynasties originating in Bohemia, present-day Czech Republic.- History :The family is descended from the clan of "Drslavice", like several other Bohemian families. The first known bearer of the family name was "Comes" and Camerarius regis ...
. He was influenced partly by his botanic inclinations and then also by his journey around Western Europe, which he undertook in 1779. In those days a new park trend had begun expanding into Europe from England. Natural scenery was to be brought into the very neighbourhood of buildings according to this trend. The principle of the landscape park
English garden
The English garden, also called English landscape park , is a style of Landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe. The...
is based directly on the condition of a natural landscape, not an artificially man-made one. The Chateau Park on Krásný Dvůr is true evidence of this school of thought. In accordance with taste of those days it was brightened with a number of Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
buildings enriching vacant fields or closing various vistas of park scenes.
From the dendrological
Dendrology
Dendrology or xylology is the science and study of wooded plants . There is no sharp boundary between plant taxonomy and dendrology. However, woody plants not only belong to many different plant families, but these families may be made up of both woody and non-woody members. Some families include...
point of view you can find more than one hundred species of trees in the park, and entirely domestic or domesticated species only. A number of ancient oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
s, beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
es, lime
Lime (fruit)
Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...
s, horse chestnuts
Aesculus
The genus Aesculus comprises 13-19 species of woody trees and shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere, with 6 species native to North America and 7-13 species native to Eurasia; there are also several hybrids. Species are deciduous or evergreen...
, plane trees
Platanus
Platanus is a small genus of trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae....
, maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
s and alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
s grow there. The most important of them is the so-called Goethe's oak (today already only a torso), the age of which is estimated at 1,000 years, which ranks it among the oldest trees in Czechia. Deeper in the park we find Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
's-Temple, the Obelisk, the Vantage
Vantage
Vantage may refer to:*Vantage, Washington, a census-designated place in Kittitas County, Washington*Aston Martin V8 Vantage , an automobile brand manufactured by Aston Martin*Vantage , a cigarette brand manufactured by R.J...
Pavilion, Goethe's Pavilion, a memorial plaque with the engraved names of important people who have visited the park, a hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...
, a grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
with a sarcophagus
Sarcophagus
A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
and other interesting objects. The so-called French garden, situated behind the eastern part of the Chateau, is also of note. Its parterre
Parterre
A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
is solved with a pond and grassy areas, which are embellished with large yew-trees and smaller box-trees.