Hluboš Castle

From the 15th to the 18th century, 25 owners changed hands here, most of them members of the minor nobility. Already in the first half of the 17th century the Hlubošská fortress had the appearance of a castle. In the second half of the 18th century, another owner, Jan Antonín Hochberg of Hannersdorf, had this old fortress, which had been rebuilt many times, demolished to the ground in order to build a mansion in accordance with his own ideas and the fashion of the time. The beginning of the 19th century was a time of romanticism and various curiosities. In the main hall of the castle in Hlubokov, this curiosity was a special large-scale gaming machine. It housed a number of instruments - pipes, clarinets, trumpets, as well as drums, bells and cymbals. Hluboš was visited by distinguished guests, so the castle had to be represented. It was surrounded by a rich flower garden and a geometrically shaped French garden with fountains and water fountains. There was a skittle alley and an artificial grotto. This chateau must have been something special when Emperor Franz of Austria visited it in 1810 and 1813.

From the beginning of the 19th century onwards, the Hochbergs of Hannersdorf went more and more into debt until 1816, when they could no longer hold on to Hluboš in the face of the onslaught of creditors. The estate went into a lottery and was won by a Viennese citizen. He got rid of it again, and then this repeated itself several more times.

Finally, in 1872, someone came along who was serious about Hluboší. It was the princely family of Őttingen - Wallerstein, who also owned the castle in Zbraslav. The new owners decided not only to repair and re-equip the castle with noble inventory, but also to expand it. The result of these modifications is the present-day appearance of the castle with many pseudo-Renaissance elements.

In 1920 and 1921, the chateau served as a summer residence of President T.G. Masaryk, for whom the presidential office rented Hluboš from Prince Oettingen for CZK 4,000. However, Hluboš was a bit far away from Prague, so in 1921 the Czechoslovak state bought the Lány castle for the president's rest. T. G. Masaryk's stays in Hluboš are undoubtedly the brightest chapter of the village's past.

In 1925 the entire property became the property of the state and in the same year it was bought from the state by Josef Kolařík, a factory owner from Příbram. The Kolařík family owned the chateau and the estate until it was nationalized in 1948. After that, the chateau had a number of users. There was a political school, a barracks, a hostel for uranium mine workers and a secondary vocational school with a boarding school.

With the advent of political changes after 1989, the ownership of the Hluboš Castle changed. Most of the property was returned in restitution to the descendants of the factory owner Josef Kolařík.

Today it is managed by the Hluboš Chateau Society. and its gradual purchase is underway so that it can be operated as a cultural monument serving the public.

The botanical garden at Hluboš Chateau was the oldest botanical garden in Bohemia and one of the oldest in Central Europe - some trees from America and China came to our country for the very first time through the Hluboš park. These included, for example, ginkgo biloba, cedar of Lebanon, juniper of Virginia, hemlock of Canada, but also, for example, thuja and yew.

In 1937, Hugo Haas and Adina Mandlová made the film "Girls Don't Give Up" at the castle. In 2005-2008, the Nova TV series "Insurance of Happiness" was filmed here.

The botanical garden at Hluboš Castle is one of the oldest in Central Europe. Some trees from America and China came to our country for the very first time through the Hluboš park. These included the ginkgo biloba, the cedar of Lebanon, the juniper of Virginia, the hemlock of Canada, as well as thuja and yew trees.