Rychnov Castle

Rychnov Castle in Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Czechia, was created by the Kolowrat noble family of the Margraviate of Moravia within the Habsburg lands, built in the late 17th century in the Baroque manner. The estate became a seat for regional administration and family representation, and over the following centuries it served as both a noble residence and a repository for an important picture collection and historic furnishings.

The estate entered Kolowrat hands in 1640, during the upheavals of the Thirty Years’ War, when the town’s population suffered religious persecution and some inhabitants were driven into emigration. A previous family stronghold in the Burjanen valley was judged unsuitable for formal reception by Karl Libštehnský von Kolowrat, who as a capable diplomat and regional governor sought a new residence that matched his office and social role.

Work on the present Baroque residence proceeded in stages. A building site was prepared in 1670 on a gentle slope beneath the Church of the Holy Trinity, but major construction did not begin until 1676. The main phase of building continued through to about 1690, producing the four-winged palace that frames two ordered courtyards and faces the Kněžna valley.

In the 18th century Count Norbert Leopold brought in the architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, already engaged to modify the nearby church façade, to enlarge the residence. The later works added an extra floor to the house and provided new stables with a riding hall; these alterations were finished during that century. After the enlargement the castle housed an extensive 18th-century picture gallery of family portraits and European paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the collection was later opened for public viewing.

The Kolowrat family retained ownership until the Second World War, when the German military occupation authorities confiscated the property. After 1945 the state took the castle into public ownership, and in 1948 Count Otmar Kolowrat was formally expropriated. In 1992 the estate returned to the Kolowrat family, to Count Kryštof Jaroslav Kolowrat Krakowský, along with the castle and its collections and roughly 5,000 hectares of forest and about 875 hectares of farmland and fishponds. The castle reopened in 2008. The complex, together with the surrounding park and the Church of the Holy Trinity, is protected as a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic (catalog number 1000142157).