Staré Hobzí Castle Audio guide

Staré Hobzí Castle

The castle stands right in the center of the village of Staré Hobzí and is one of its most distinctive buildings. Its present form is the result of a long development from a medieval fortress through a Renaissance seat to a Baroque residence with later Classicist alterations. The complex consists of a two-story three-wing building with a courtyard of honor, complemented by a park and farm buildings.

The first references to Hobzí go back to 1190, when the Chapel of Saint Andrew, an inn, and a mill are documented there. The fortress is explicitly mentioned in the mid-fourteenth century, but around 1400 it probably disappeared. In the seventeenth century, the lordly residence moved to the lower estate, and in 1726, under Maxmilián František z Deblína, construction began on a new representative castle. It was completed in 1733.

A number of valuable features have survived inside, especially vaults, historic staircases, doors, and the Chapel of Saint Thomas with fresco decoration by Felix Anton Scheffler. The castle park continues the former farm and residential operations of the estate. Also historically valuable is the layout of the entire complex, which clearly shows how a rural noble residence functioned in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.