Hořovice Castle

The founders were gentlemen from Vrbno and Bruntál. Nowadays, the castle has the appearance of the second half of the 19th century, when it was owned by the princely family of the Lords of Hanau until 1945. Now it is owned by the state and managed by the National Heritage Institute. The castle is open to the public and hosts various social events. It is protected as a cultural monument and a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

On the basis of Decree No. 7 issued by Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš on 19 May 1945, the grounds of the Hořovice Chateau were nationalized on 30 June 1945 and placed under the administration of the national administrator Eduard Pokorný (former forest accountant). Henry of Schaumburg was branded a German (although an Austrian national) and an enemy of the Czechoslovak people. At this time (from 6 May) part of the castle building had already been seized as a hospital. However, it had already been evicted on 6 June by order of a Red Army detachment, which stayed there until 28 June. During this period, much of the inventory and interior decoration was destroyed and many items were seized by the Red Army and taken away as spoils of war. Further booty was taken by another Russian detachment that arrived at the castle on 30 June. After the departure of the Russian soldiers, the castle belonged to the town of Hořovice. However, the exact inventory of the property is known only from 2 July 1946, when the inventory consisted of only 2241 items. The missing part of the inventory was stolen or destroyed. The chateau building housed the post office and the remaining rooms were used to store the equipment of the teachers' institute and part of the inventory.

In the following years, until 1951, the castle was managed by the National Cultural Commission. During this time, various organisations, from the Musée Association to government offices, had their headquarters or even depositories here. At the end of 1951, an executive body for heritage protection was established under the Ministry of Education, Science and Arts - the State Heritage Administration, which was also responsible for the Hořovice Chateau at this time. The number of tenants did not decrease even under the new administrator - on the contrary, 19 rooms of the north-west wing were still used by the District Peasant School in 1951. At the same time, however, an exhibition in the south-west wing was being prepared and opened in 1954 (dining room, library, hunting room, blue salon and Empire bedroom). This exposition was presented in an almost unchanged state until 1974, when the castle was closed to the public due to its state of disrepair. At the same time, the lease of the School of Mechanical Engineering, which replaced the peasant school in the same premises in 1956, also ended. The exhibition did not reopen until 1985.However, only two exhibitions were housed in the north wing - a collection of children's furniture, toys and small porcelain sculptures from Central Bohemian castles (the collection was originally intended for Křivoklát Castle) and an exhibition entitled "Music without musicians" - a set of automatic recorders on loan from the National Museum. In 1988, an exhibition of historical clocks from the 16th to 20th centuries was added. In the next season, the exhibition was extended by two rooms: the so-called small dining room and the Dutch lounge, but it was a completely artificial exhibition. After 1989, other rooms of the main wing were opened - in 1993 the so-called Nightingale Room (now the Main Hall) and the Red Salon were installed, a year later the Ladies' Lounge, and in 1995 the Dining Room and Library were opened. In 2000, the exhibition was expanded by the addition of the Hunting and Gold Lounges and the penultimate modification was the reinstallation of the lounges dedicated to the Lords of Vrbno in the 2002 season. In 2005, the Ladies' Lounge, now the Green Lounge, was reinstalled according to the surviving illustrations of this room. Furthermore, the spiral staircase connecting the first floor with the ground floor was made accessible, where the servants' rooms are installed.

In 2002, the grounds of the Hořovice State Chateau were declared a National Cultural Monument. The castle is managed by the National Heritage Institute.