Tuchoměřice Castle Audio guide

History and Building Development

The castle in Tuchoměřice was built before 1615 on the site of an older fortress documented as early as 1436. Several important Czech noble families took turns holding it, especially the Zajíc family of Hazmburk, the Služský family of Chlum, and the Vartenberg family. Under the Služský family, the original fortress was rebuilt into a Renaissance seat that met the needs of a noble estate at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

A major transformation came in 1624, when the Jesuits acquired the estate. Damage during the Thirty Years' War was so extensive that in the middle of the seventeenth century they had to begin almost from scratch. Between 1667 and 1669, the Italian builder Giovanni Domenico Orsi worked here and also designed the Church of Saint Vitus. The result was an early Baroque residence with a rectangular four-wing plan and an inner courtyard.

The Appearance of the Complex

The complex has preserved its basic Renaissance layout to this day, even though its facades and details are Baroque. A single nave Church of Saint Vitus adjoins the north side. In the eighteenth century, an entrance wing with a passageway was added, and there is also a Baroque granary from 1711 in the courtyard. The monument is protected as a cultural heritage site, but it is not normally open to the public.

Later Uses

After the Jesuit order was dissolved in 1773, the building came under the administration of the New Town convict and later the Studijní nadační fond. At the end of the nineteenth century, it housed a convalescent home run by the Borromean Sisters, and after 1953 it served as a long-term care hospital. Since 1998, the complex has been used by the Chemin Neuf community as a religious house.