Blatná castle
The castle and grounds at Blatna are without doubt one of the most important monuments of their type in this country today
from an architectural and historical standpoint. The castle's long history, distinctive architectural style in a surprisingly
well conserved environment of parks and water surfaces, and its current condition all make it a jewel among castle complexes.
Along with Švihov and Červena Lhota castles, Blatna is one of the best-preserved water castles in the Czech Republic. Architectural
and historical development has made this building a remarkable example of the artistic styles of the past centuries, and since
it was mainly in the possession of important noble families during its development, Blatná was the place where the history
of Central Europe was born and transformed.
Archaeological findings indicate that the knoll in the middle of the marshes (blata in Czech – from where Blatna's name
derives) was settled in prehistoric times. Slavs began to appear in the Blatna area in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.
Permanent Slavic settlement, however, only occurred in the late 10th century. The settlement at Blatna was well positioned
thanks to an important old trade route connecting the towns of Sušice and Horažďovice and crossing the river Lomnice at
this spot. Blatná's first historical record is from 1235, when the fortress was first mentioned in writing as the seat of
Vyšemír (coat of arms: arrow), perhaps a poor relative of the Bavor family of Strakonice. Blatná was mentioned again in
1241 mentioning a certain Předosta of Blatná, this time clearly indicating a small castle protected by water, made up of
the castle itself and a private Romanesque chapel, quite complex from a structural point of view, which must have been built
somewhere between the late 12th century and 1225. Despite this, the oldest period of the castle's history is sometimes linked
– as is the case for other castles in this region – with the Knights Templar, and accompanying legends were also made
up. Nevertheless, written records indicate that Blatna was always held by secular feudal lords. Thus, it is more likely that
the Order of St. John was involved, as they had their seat at the Strakonice castle belonging to the Bavor family of Strakonice,
who acquired Blatná in the late 13th century. The assumption is that it was the first Bavors living at Blatná who were
not satisfied with the mostly wooden fortified complex and started rebuilding it into a grander manor, surrounded by a stone
wall protecting two palaces facing each other. The castle’s natural defences (the surrounding marshes) began to be transformed
into a continuous water fortress, although it did not reach its current form until later under other owners. Since about 1299
Blatna can finally be called a real castle. The last owner from the Bavor family was Břetislav of Strakonice, nephew of Zdeněk
of Rožmitál, who held the castle until 1403. The Bavor family died out in the male line and the Rožmitál family, as their
relatives, gradually inherited the Bavor property. Now the boar’s head on the banner of the lords of Rožmitál waved over
the Blatna castle walls. Their long tenure in Blatna became the castle’s golden age. The first lord, Jan of Rožmitál,
had the original Romanesque building drastically renovated and Blatna became a Gothic fortress with a fortified entry tower. The
castle withstood the instability of the Hussite period in the possession of this member of the moderate faction of the Hussite
nobility, later an uncompromising Catholic. It was only under Jan’s descendants reign that the castle reached the pinnacle
of its architectural glory. Jan’s sons, Jaroslav Lev and Protiva, held Blatná after their father’s death in 1430. Especially
Jaroslav Lev, who appears in written sources as owner of Blatna since 1446, held high government posts. He was a relative
of King Jiří of Poděbrady and was an accomplished diplomat and a highly educated man, heading up the Bohemian peace delegation
of forty Bohemian lords and knights traveling around the courts of Europe in 1465 to 1467. At this journey he got inspired
from the culture of the Western European nobility.
Jaroslav Lev then put this inspiration into practice by improving the manor of his home at Blatná. He ordered extensive
renovations to re-imagine the building in Late Gothic style, gave the chateau its distinctive look with the rectangular
entrance tower and angled doorway, which replaced the previous, simpler entryway, as well as the Gothic chapel attached to
the tower on the southeast side and the Rožmitál Palace. He also had the Rožmitál Palace and his study in the top of the
tower decorated with beautiful frescoes. Jaroslav’s son, Zdeněk Lev, held the office of High Burgrave at the court of Vladislav
Jagellonský in 1508. He loved opulence and spent lavishly on his residences to make them more impressive looking.His contribution
to the chateau’s legacy was rebuilding the southwest palace into a magnificent three-story Gothic Renaissance building called
the Rejt Palace.
Zdeněk Lev invited a renowned architect Benedikt Rejt to perform the renovation at Blatná. Rejt had previously worked in
the king’s service – his work includes the Vladislav Hall at the Prague Castle and the St. Barbora Cathedral in Kutná
Hora. Zdeněk’s love of luxury put a strain on the family’s coffers and his son Adam Lev inherited his debts along with
his estate and was forced to sell the chateau and town of Blatná to the sisters Kateřina and Anna Řepická from Sudoměř
in 1555. The sisters sold Blatná in 1560 to Kateřina’s husband, Zdeněk of Sternberg. Two years after his death, in 1577,
Blatná was sold to Jan of Rozdražov from the old Polish family, the Counts of Rozdražov. He died soon after, however, and
Blatná belonged for many years to his son, Václav of Rozdražov, after he reached his majority. Under his ownership, the
Renaissance Rozdražovsky Palace, the last of the Blatna palace structures, took shape on the north side of the wall from
the entrance tower almost all the way to the Old Palace. The Estates Uprising in 1618 to 1620 and the Thirty Years’ War
interrupted improvements to the Blatna estate. The castle was severely looted during the uprising by the army of the rebellious
Bohemian Estates led by Mansfeld. The town and its inhabitants suffered the same fate. Václav of Rozdražov fled to Silesia
in 1622, where he died in 1625. His widow Anna Marie continued living with their young son František Ignác at Blatná, who
took over management of the estate in 1645. History was no kinder to Blatná after the rebels’ defeat at the Battle of Bílá
Hora in 1620. František Ignác died without heir in 1691, ending the male line of the Rozdražov family. His estates were
inherited by his nephew Count Jan František Kolowrat-Krakowsky, the son of his sister Anna Katerina. He soon sold the estate
to Countess Ernestina Serényi, and the Hungarian Serényi family held Blatná from 1695 to the late 18th century.
The new lords of Blatná entered the scene in a new, Baroque period, marked by the many Baroque statues in the town, the
magnificently renovated church in nearby Paštiky, and the Baroque transformation of the Rozdražov wing. Wenzel Karl (Václav
Karel) Hildprandt von Ottenhausen, a Tyrolean noble, purchased Blatná from the Serényi brothers in 1798, as they had no
heirs. Wenzel Karl and his heirs remained lords of Blatná until the present day, except for the forced interruption during
the Communist period. Franz (František) Hildprandt had the chateau massively reconstructed and extended which resulted in
a representative seat that would also provide comfortable living. Later, Robert Hildprandt had the chateau reconstructed in
a Romantic style with Neo-Gothic renovations between 1850 and 1856, designed by architect Bernard Grüber of Munich, giving
the building more or less its current look.
In the late 1940s the chateau was taken over by the National Heritage Commission and it was later confiscated from the Hildprandts
in 1952 after the Communist takeover. Friedrich (Bedřich) Hildprandt, his wife Cornelia and their daughters were allowed
to legally emigrate to Ethiopia after 1958 thanks to the family’s ties to Emperor Haile Selassie I. The relics of the family’s
time in Ethiopia form a compelling addition to the chateau exhibition. After 1989, the estate was returned into the hands
of the Hildprandts, namely to Cornelia, the wife of Friedrich Hildprandt (who died in 1981 in Germany), and their daughters
Josefina and Jana. The current owners are working intensively on restoring the chateau and opening it to visitors.
(source: Zámek Blatná)
Contact and location
Official web: www.zamek-blatna.cz
E-mail: info@zamek-blatna.cz
Phone: +420 383 422 934
Address: Na Příkopech 320, 38801 Blatná