Case study: The Battle for Jezeří Chateau: Difference between revisions

In 1459, the Smolík family returned to Jezeří and the last of them, Zikmund, bequeathed the chateau to his brother-in-law, Mikuláš Hochhauser of Hochhaus, in 1513. It was probably then that the chateau was rebuilt as a renaissance chateau.

The conversion of the medieval chateau into a renaissance chateau was finished in 1549. There is an ornamental stone wedge over the main gate that commemorates this event. The wedge bears the coat of arms of the Hochhauser family, the year 1549 and an inscription stating “O people, remember where the master is and his family.”

Unfortunately, on 18 February 1646 the chateau caught fire and burned to the ground, with the exception of a small tall building and the stables. A year later, Vilém Popel died and the estate went to his son František Vilém, the founder of the Nové Sedlo-Jezeří branch of the family. There were, however, no significant alterations to the chateau carried out during his lifetime.

The chateau came to be significantly altered during the lifetime of František Vilém’s son – Ferdinand Vilém of Lobkowicz, who resided at Nové Sedlo until the work was finished and only moved to Jezeří in 1697. The year 1696 over the main gate must therefore mark the end of the chateau’s alteration. We can correctly assume that at this point Jezeří was a magnificent place in full alignment with contemporary ideas of a family residence. Unfortunately, the name of the project’s architect remains unknown; we don’t even know the reason why the greater part of the Lobkowicz archives were not preserved.

Oldřích Felix decided to use his “modest means” to renovate the chateau the same year, and probably barely managed to do so just before his tragic death in 1722. He was also the last member of the Nové Sedlo-Jezeří branch of the Lobkowicz family, therefore the will of 4 September 1722 leaves the estate to Karel Adam - once he attained his majority – and until then it was to be managed by his father, Jiří Kristián of Lobkowicz. Karel Adam then formally sold Jezeří to Ferdinand Filip Josef, Prince of Lobkowicz in Roudnice, in 1752, thus passing the chateau, as was expected, to the Roudnice-Bílina line of the family.

In the time of Ferdinand Filip (from 1752), the chateau was in good condition, and therefore it was enough to simply carry out regular maintenance. After Ferdinand Filip’s death, the estate went to Josef František Maxmilián, whom we connect with a flourishing art life at the chateau (Musical Past), as well as with major alteration works. The purpose of those was to adapt the chateau to meet requirements for what was then deemed the adequate comforts of a nobleman’s lifestyle. Minor reconstruction works were carried out as soon as 1797, but the main phase of the alterations began in 1802. The structure and use of individual rooms has more or less been preserved to this day. The extensive adaptation of “piano nobile” was carried out in the northern as well as the southern part of the chateau (the theatre hall and the new chapel).