Lobkovice - Chateau

Chateau Lobkovice - located in Lobkovice, today part of Neratovice – was originally a medieval fortified manor house, later rebuilt into a Renaissance and Baroque chateau. The chateau has been a protected monument since 1958 and has been listed as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic since 1966.

First mentioned in 1403, it belonged then to the Prague burgher Prokop Krukner. In 1409 the fortified manor was acquired by the founder of the Lobkovic family, Mikuláš of Újezd, who soon began to use the nickname from Lobkovice. In 1445 Lobkovice was inherited by Jan Popel, the son of Mikuláš of Újezd. Between 1450 and 1451, the fortified manor house was briefly occupied by the troops of King Jiří of Poděbrady. Later, Lobkovice was acquired by Albrecht Jiří of Očedělice. After it had changed hands many times, it was acquired by Beneš Sekera of Sedčice in 1496. The Sekera of Sedčice family had the original stone fortified manor rebuilt into a small Renaissance chateau. In 1615 their descendant Jan Ratibor Sekerka of Sedčice sold Lobkovice to the burgher Václav Majský of Sobíšek, who a year later sold it again to Polyxena of Pernštejn. She gave the manor house to her husband Zdeněk Lobkovic for his 47th birthday and the chateau thus came back into the possession of the Lobkovic family after many years. At that time, however, the chateau only served as the administrative centre of the estate and provided housing for officials.

During the Thirty Years‘ War the chateau was looted several times and fell into disrepair. It wasn‘t until 1679 that the building was repaired and rebuilt under the ownership of Prince Ferdinand August of Lobkovice, according to the plans of the Italian architect Antonio della Porta. In 1829 Ferdinand Josef of Lobkovice sold Lobkovice to Jan Měchura, a Prague lawyer, who had the chateau rebuilt again. His daughter Terezie, who inherited the chateau in 1840, was the wife of František Palacký. Palacký was very fond of the chateau and often stayed there. In 1897 his son Jan Palacký sold the chateau to Prince Mořic of Lobkovice, in whose family the chateau stayed until 1948, when it became the property of the state and was administered by the Local National Committee in Lobkovice. In the early 1980s the Faculty of Arts of Charles University took over the chateau, and its conversion into a study centre and library depository commenced.

After 1989 the chateau was returned in the restitutions to the descendants of the Roudnice branch of the Lobkovic family. The current owner is Alexandre de Ridder-Lobkowicz (* 1948), the great-grandson of the 10th Prince Ferdinand Zdeněk Lobkovic (1858–1938). The chateau is currently being reconstructed and is therefore inaccessible to the public.