Průhonice Castle

The complex stands as two principal castle buildings linked to a medieval church, surrounded by farm structures, a guardhouse and an enclosing perimeter wall, all set within a large landscape park following the course of the Botič stream. Construction combines medieval masonry, later stone and brick work, rusticated stucco finishes and high gabled roofs, creating a layered ensemble that preserves elements from Romanesque through nineteenth‑century refurbishments.

The older palace, here called the Old Castle, sits on a promontory and retains the footprint of a medieval fortified palace. Its plan grew into three irregular wings by the late nineteenth century, opening southward toward the park. A dominant six‑storey rectangular tower with a high decorated roof and internal spiral stair projects from the west wing. Surviving medieval wall masonry of an earlier fortress core is visible in the fabric, while outer facades show rusticated plaster and decorative corner treatments. Courtyard wings contain ground‑floor arcades and painted wall decorations executed in the late nineteenth century, including a painted Saint George and the dragon.

The New Castle occupies the former brewery site and links the east side of the older building to the church. It is primarily a long, mostly single‑storey brick wing divided into three unequal sections by gable walls. Facades are enlivened by graffito panels, sandstone detailing and a raised central attic, and the western section bears an arabesque frieze beneath the eaves. Roofs are steep and gabled, reflecting the nineteenth‑century rebuilding that adapted earlier service buildings for residential and institutional use.

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary preserves a Romanesque core, with the western portion and bell tower dating to the late twelfth century. The nave is single‑aisled with a rectangular presbytery added after 1300. Church walls of unplastered sandstone blocks remain visible on the nave and tower. The interior carries a broad cycle of fourteenth‑century murals depicting scenes such as the Annunciation, the enthroned Madonna and Child, the Death of the Virgin, the Man of Sorrows and Saint Christopher. Later Gothic, Baroque and nineteenth‑century modifications include an added west portico and a sacristy.

Defensive elements around the castle include preserved lengths of perimeter wall and traces of moats that once encircled the site, with one moat running from near the church northward and another separating an outer enclosure from the castle centre. A central southward palace that stood within the complex was altered and partly removed during the large nineteenth‑century reconstruction, but the pattern of outer works and gate positions still conveys the former fortified arrangement.

The park is a carefully arranged English‑style landscape expanded into a large arboretum around the Botič valley, with ponds, streams, islands and cascades forming the main axis of movement. Water features bear names such as Bořín and Lobeška and are linked by small brooks. The planting includes extensive collections of woody plants and perennials, a three‑hectare alpine garden and a rosarium, many rhododendron groupings and specialized beds that exploit slopes and microclimates. Romantic garden buildings from the turn of the twentieth century, including a Neo‑Romanesque chapel with a recessed apse and bell gable at the entrance, punctuate the landscape and survive as part of the designed ensemble.