Doubravice
- Clasificación
- Casona
- País
- Chequia
- Región
- Šumperk
- Dirección
- Olšany 174, 789 62 Olšany
On the upper course of the Morava river in the Šumperk district lies the village of Olšany, of which the hamlet of Doubravice forms a part; on the edge of the hamlet stands the extensive complex of the Doubravice farm. In the early Middle Ages an important trade route ran along the Morava river; in the nearby Klášterec a monastic cell of the Benedictine monastery at Postoloprty was established in the second half of the 13th century. Olšany with Doubravice first appear in written sources as villages in 1490, when they were appurtenances of Brníčko Castle and estate. Later they became appurtenances of the Zábřeh estate, but in 1596 they together with other settlements formed the Ruda nad Moravou estate, purchased by Jan the Elder of Žerotín. Jan's son Bernard of Žerotín chose Ruda as his residence and after 1600 began its ambitious reconstruction in the Renaissance style, engaging Italian builders for this purpose. It is reasonable to assume that he simultaneously initiated the construction of the demesne farm at Doubravice, comprising a rectangular courtyard enclosed by the so-called manor house and agricultural buildings. After Bernard's death in 1615, Ladislav Velen of Žerotín became the owner of the Ruda estate; for his participation in the Estates' Uprising the Ruda estate was forfeited to the Emperor, who transferred it to Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein. This family then remained in possession of the Ruda nad Moravou estate until the 20th century. The Doubravice farm at that time fulfilled all the functions of a classic demesne farm — that is, a unit providing shelter for estate servants and concentrating crop and livestock production on the adjacent lord's land. A more substantial transformation of Doubravice took place in the early 1770s, when the so-called manor house was adapted to serve as the headquarters for the estate's bureaucratic administration. The Doubravice farm served this purpose in the following years as well. After the first land reform, the farm was acquired by the Olšany Paper Mills; most of the farm is today in private hands. The manor house was designated an immovable cultural monument in 2024.