Bečváry

Classification

Château

Country

Czechia

Region

Kolín

Address

Bečváry 1, 281 43 Bečváry, Česko

Bečváry château is situated in the village of the same name, approximately 14 km west of Kutná Hora. It has been a listed monument since 1958 and is regarded by specialists as the finest late Baroque château in Bohemia. The Bečváry estate is first mentioned in 1265. The fortified manor recorded here in 1603 was built by Jaroslav Myška of Žlunice. During the Thirty Years' War, when the estate was owned by Václav Michna of Vacínov, Bečváry fell into ruin and the manor served only as a barn; by 1654 it is described simply as derelict. The Baroque château — originally of three wings — was erected on the site of the former manor by Jan Vilém of Pfeffershofen before the mid-18th century. He did not complete the work, and in 1753 sold the château and village to the imperial councillor Jiří Hillebrandt of Prandau (Prandova), who continued the construction. He too left it unfinished, and in 1763 sold Bečváry to the Empress Maria Theresa. That same year she transferred it to Generalissimo Ernst Gideon von Laudon, who had the château rebuilt and extended between 1766 and 1774. The work was carried out probably to designs by the architect Jan Josef Wirch and executed by Ignác Jan Nepomuk Palliardi; it was at this time that the château assumed its present appearance. In 1780 the château passed to the younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I, Archduke Karl Ludwig, who considerably enlarged the adjacent château park and around 1800 had a so-called new château built within the estate's courtyard complex. This building housed principally guest apartments and also the estate administration. Karl Ludwig retained ownership until 1824, when it was purchased by Martin Liška of Stříbro; from his son František the Bečváry estate together with the château was acquired in 1883 by Kateřina Barbora Frenglová, from whom it passed by inheritance to her daughter Klára Antonie, who died in 1942. The château was confiscated from her siblings in 1948. After 1990 it was returned in restitution to the heirs of Klára Frengelová, and from them it was purchased in 2000 by the musician Robert Kodym. The château is currently not open to the public and is undergoing a demanding, phased restoration under the direction of its new owner.

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