Žďár nad Sázavou
- Clasificación
- Château
- País
- Chequia
- Región
- Žďár nad Sázavou
- Dirección
- Zámek 8, 591 02 Žďár nad Sázavou
The Cistercian monastery at Žďár nad Sázavou was founded in 1252 by Boček of Zbraslav. During the Hussite Wars the monastery was plundered. In 1458 the monastery became the property of King Jiří of Kunštát and Poděbrady, who during his reign (1458–1471) endeavoured to restore the devastated complex. At the beginning of the 17th century the monastery together with its estates became the personal property of Cardinal František Dietrichstein, who in 1614 dissolved the monastery and had the prelature converted into a château between 1614 and 1616. The second founder of the monastery is considered to be the Velehrad abbot Jan Greifenfels of Pilsenburg, who in 1638 redeemed the former monastic property and the following year reinstated the Cistercians. The monastery reached its greatest flowering under Abbot Václav Vejmluva in the years 1705–1738. Abbot Vejmluva had extensive reconstructions and new constructions in the Baroque Gothic style carried out within the monastery complex under the direction of the architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. He had the prelature generously rebuilt and enlarged into a massive, essentially château-like four-wing structure with an adjoining French garden. The immediate impetus for the dissolution of the monastery was a deliberately started devastating fire in July 1784. The last abbot, Otto Steinbach of Kranichstein, himself petitioned Joseph II for the dissolution of the monastery, which followed by imperial decree on 13 October 1784. Following the dissolution of the monastery, the Moravian Religious Fund became the owner of the property, and in 1826 the complex was purchased at a public auction by the Supreme Marshal of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Count Josef Vratislav of Mitrovic. In 1930 the château became the property of the Chlumec branch of the Kinský family. The owner became Eleonora Kinská, née Clam-Gallasová (1887–1967). The château at Žďár nad Sázavou with its entire estate was nationalised from the Kinskýs in 1948. Subsequently a world-unique Museum of Books (an exhibition of the National Museum) was housed there, which remained until 2015. The complex gradually also became home to the district museum (now situated in the town) and the district archive. In 1992 the estate was returned in restitution to the son of Eleonora Kinská, Radslav Kinský (1928–2008). Today the owners of the château are his sons Charles Nicolas and Constantin Kinský. The château complex is accessible to the public throughout the year, and within it can be found the permanent exhibition "Baroque Painting and Sculpture" from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, an exposition on the life of the architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, the Kinský Gallery, and a Next-Generation Museum offering an exceptional insight into the history of the Žďár château through experiential exhibitions.
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