Kaceřov

Classification

Château

Country

Czechia

Region

Plzeň-sever

Address

Kaceřov 1, 331 51 Kaznějov

Kaceřov Chateau stands in the village of the same name, approximately 11 km south-east of Plasy. It is one of the earliest and most interesting Renaissance chateaux in Bohemia. The landscape around Kaceřov had belonged since the 12th century to the Plasy monastery, and the original manor at Kaceřov was probably built between 1370 and 1376. During the Hussite Wars the Plasy monastery lost almost all its property, as King Sigismund of Luxembourg pledged its estates to his supporters. In 1420 the Kralovice region with Kaceřov was assigned to Bedřich and Jan of Kolovrat. In 1460 Kaceřov passed to Jindřich of Kolovrat, and probably under him the manor — devastated during the Hussite Wars — was repaired and a chapel established within it. The last Kolovrat at Kaceřov was the royal chancellor Albrecht of Kolovrat. After his death in 1513 the Plasy abbot Jan secured the return of the pledged property. Within five years, however, he was compelled for financial reasons to pledge Kaceřov to Albrecht of Gutenštejn. Kaceřov was also sought by Florián Gryspek of Gryspek, secretary to Emperor Ferdinand; he eventually succeeded in having Kaceřov pledged to him for four generations in 1539. Florián Gryspek decided in 1540 to build a new Renaissance chateau, which took almost two decades to complete. After the Battle of the White Mountain the chateau was confiscated from the Gryspeks and passed again to the Cistercian monastery at Plasy, which owned it until its dissolution in 1785. After the dissolution of the monastery the chateau became the property of the Religious Fund, from which it was purchased together with the Plasy estate in 1826 by Prince Klement Lothar Václav Metternich-Winneburg. He too, however, paid little attention to the chateau, which served primarily as a granary. In the 1920s the grandfather of the current owner acquired the chateau and its estate. After 1948 the chateau was confiscated. Its devastation was sealed when it was put at the disposal of an agricultural cooperative. In the 1960s the National Heritage Institute assumed management of the chateau. In the 1990s the chateau was returned to the descendant of the original owner, Ing. Jiří Štrunc, who is gradually reconstructing it together with his wife Pavla. The chateau is accessible to the public several times a year or by prior arrangement with the owner, and also for study and research purposes.

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