Chyše
- Clasificación
- Château
- País
- Chequia
- Región
- Karlovy Vary
- Dirección
- Chyše č. 30, 364 53 Chyše
Chyše is an originally Gothic castle that once guarded the trade route leading from Prague to Cheb. It has been entered on the list of immovable cultural monuments of the Czech Republic since 1964. The earliest records relating to Chyše date from 1169–1192. Between 1254 and 1292 Odolen, an ancestor of the Pětipeský of Chyše and Egenberg family, resided here. In 1466 Burian of Gutštejn acquired Chyše, had the town enclosed with walls, and in the late Gothic style restored the damaged castle. His son Viktorín was the last male holder from the Gutštejn family, and after his death Chyše passed to his daughter Anežka, who became the wife of Mikuláš of Lobkowicz. Mikuláš had the Gothic castle converted into a Renaissance château in 1578, but already the following year sold the château and the town of Chyše. In 1607 the estate was owned by Bohuchval Berka of Dubá, who as one of the instigators of the Estates' uprising of 1618–1620 fled the country after the lost Battle of the White Mountain, whereupon his property was confiscated. In 1622 Chyše was sold to the imperial appeals councillor Jiří Vilém Michna of Vacínov. The Michna of Vacínov family retained Chyše until 1664, when it was purchased at auction by Vilém Albrecht I. Kolowrat-Krakowský for his daughter Anna Ludmila. She, together with her second husband Karel Jiří Michna of Vacínov, carried out a grand Baroque conversion of the château between 1695 and 1708. The heavily indebted estate was acquired in 1766 by Count Prokop I. Lažanský of Buková. In 1823 the estate was inherited by Prokop III. Lažanský, under whom a structural remodelling of the château into its present Romantic appearance took place between 1856 and 1858. The last member of the Lažanský family to own the estate was Count JUDr. Vladimír Lažanský, who held it from 1925 until 1945 when it was confiscated. In the subsequent period several state institutions occupied the château without proper care, and it eventually found use as a school in nature. In 1976 the château was completely emptied and closed, inaugurating the period of its greatest deterioration. At the beginning of 1996 the dilapidated château was purchased by Marcela and Vladimír Lažanský, who that same year began its comprehensive restoration. On 30 May 1999 the first château exhibition was opened; in 2009 it was expanded to include the rooms of the owners' residential quarters on the first floor. The nine-hectare historic château park, including its water management system, was also substantially revitalised. The château is open to visitors from April to October.