Rychnov nad Kněžnou
- Classification
- Château
- Pays
- Tchéquie
- Région
- Rychnov nad Kněžnou
- Adresse
- Kolowratská 1, 516 01 Rychnov nad Kněžnou
Rychnov nad Kněžnou château, together with the façade of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, forms one of the largest Baroque complexes in Bohemia. It has been entered on the list of immovable cultural monuments of the Czech Republic since 1964. On the site of the present Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Rychnov nad Kněžnou there stood, already before 1258, the fortified manor of the royal chamberlain Heřman of Rychnov. In the second half of the 16th century the castle fell out of use as a residence. In 1577 Burjan Rudolf II. Trčka of Lípa purchased the Rychnov estate and had a Renaissance château built on the site now occupied by the Rychnov Municipal Podorlice Brewery. In 1640 Albrecht IV. Kolowrat-Liebsteinský purchased the Rychnov estate, and his son František Karel I. decided to build a new seat — a grand Baroque château. The site for the new château was chosen on a gentle slope below the Church of the Most Holy Trinity. Construction of the château began in 1676 and was completed in 1690. A four-wing, one-storey palace was built, with arcades surrounding the square ground-floor courtyard. In the second decade of the 18th century the château was rebuilt and remodelled to designs by the architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. Among the products of this High Baroque remodelling is also the riding school, which is decorated with frescoes by the eminent Silesian painter Jiří Vilém Josef Neunhertz. The Kolowrats administered the château, the estate, the château park, the adjacent fields, meadows, pastures, forests, and ponds in Rychnov nad Kněžnou until the Second World War, during which a German forced administration was imposed on the estate. After the war Otmar Kolowrat recovered the property from the state, but following February 1948 all his property was nationalised. In 1992 the château in Rychnov nad Kněžnou, together with its collections, was returned under the restitution law to Kryštof Jaroslav Kolowrat Krakowský, who managed the estate until 1999; from that date the estate has been owned by his son Jan Egon Kolowrat Krakowský Liebsteinský. Part of the château interiors is currently accessible to the public from May to October.