Vilémov
- Classification
- Château
- Country
- Czechia
- Region
- Havlíčkův Brod
- Address
- Zámek Vilémov, 582 83 Vilémov u Golčova Jeníkova
The market town of Vilémov is situated at the foot of the Železné hory (Iron Mountains) on the Hostačovka stream, near the regional centre of Golčův Jeníkov. It comprises two settlement units — Vilémov proper and Klášter (Monastery). In the first quarter of the 12th century a Benedictine monastery was founded at this site, which was destroyed by the Hussites in 1421. On the ruins of the monastery, after 1577, Beneš Beneda of Nečtin erected a one-storey Renaissance manor. At the end of the 17th century it was remodelled in the Baroque style, and his successor in the years 1756–1765 enlarged it, following architectural designs by Jan Josef Wirch, by adding a massive two-storey central projecting bay (transverse wing) extending into a hexagonal honour court. The château became around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries a refuge for the organist and composer Matěj Sojka (1740–1817), and in 1809–1810 it served as a military field hospital. After the death of the last male member of the Carretto-Millesimo family, Vilémov passed in 1852 to Josef Eckmühl Reiský of Dubnice. His descendants were confronted throughout the 20th century with all the vicissitudes of the era: in 1942 the Nazis confiscated the château and its appurtenances; after the end of the Second World War Soviet Marshal Malinovsky's troops were billeted there for a time. Only after their departure was the château recovered by the grandson of Václav, Alfréd Reiský, but only briefly. In May 1948 the Czechoslovak state confiscated the Reiský family's property and the family emigrated to the United States. The château became the seat of a district secondary school, and subsequently a primary school (upper stage) was housed in the gradually deteriorating complex. Under the restitution proceedings, the devastated château was returned to the political scientist Prof. Vladimír Reiský, who restored the château and established in it the Library of European Integration and a language centre, which were housed in the château's premises for several years. The château remains a significant cultural centre of the Vysočina region.
Matěj Baťha (CC BY-SA 2.5) · CC BY-SA 2.5