Savoia Castle: A Gothic Castle and Baroque Chateau in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page20 sections
History
Savoia Castle in Czechia is a medieval Bohemian castle at Škvorec, probably founded around 1279 and later reshaped as a Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque residence. Its early founder was probably Domaslav of Škvorec, a prominent royal and court official who served Queen Kunigunda and held offices connected with Prague Castle and the royal treasury. The castle appears indirectly in records from 1279 and is explicitly mentioned from 1404.
Gothic foundation and the Olbramovic expansion
The original castle probably consisted mainly of a palace that combined residential and defensive functions. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Škvorec belonged to the Olbramovic family, a wealthy Prague merchant clan of German origin. Around 1400, members of the family greatly enlarged the complex and turned it into a two-palace Gothic residence.
The principal owners included Olbram, son of Menhart, and his sons Olbram, Pavel, and Václav. Olbram became the fourth Archbishop of Prague in 1396, while Pavel and Václav occupied important secular offices. Their growing social and political position helped bring about the rebuilding of Škvorec.
After the property was divided among the brothers, it passed through the hands of Jan Nichilen of Prague, Jan of Klučov, Eliška of Škvorec, Jan Ohništko of Ohnišťany, Prokop Bervík of Malešice, and Vilém of Kounice. The estate was reunited with the Olbramovic family in 1431 and later passed through a branch of that family to the Klinštejn line.
The Klinštejn and Smiřický estates
Čeněk of Klinštejn acquired Škvorec in 1462. During Klinštejn ownership, the settlement received market-town status in 1497. After Jindřich of Klinštejn died during the Hungarian wars, the estate went to his maternal uncle, Zikmund I Smiřický of Smiřice.
Around 1545, Zikmund I began converting the old Gothic castle into a Renaissance residence. The Smiřický family, a powerful Bohemian noble house, retained the estate through several inheritances. Albrecht Jan Smiřický of Smiřice later took part in the Bohemian Revolt of 1618, an uprising against Habsburg rule. After the revolt failed, Habsburg authorities confiscated his property.
In 1621, the confiscated estate passed to General Albrecht von Wallenstein. He sold it almost immediately, in 1622, to Prince Karl I of Liechtenstein.
War damage and Baroque transformation
Swedish troops plundered and burned the castle on 27 November 1639 during the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648. Ceilings collapsed in rooms belonging to both palaces, including a jail in the upper palace. Repairs were largely provisional, and the complex remained ruinous through much of the seventeenth century.
The Italian builder Kristian Minedi repaired part of the castle in 1710, followed by major repairs in 1727. From 1729, the northern part became the residence of Princess Maria Theresa of Soissons. She belonged by marriage to a cadet branch of the House of Savoy-Carignano, a European ruling dynasty with branches that held territories and titles in Italy and elsewhere. Her philanthropy and extensive improvements gave the chateau much of its surviving Baroque appearance and helped establish the later name Savoia Castle.
Maria Theresa died in 1772. The chateau then ceased to serve as a mansion and became the administrative center of the estate. Parts of the buildings were converted into flats for clerks and servants, and the complex gradually deteriorated. It was still habitable in 1794, but its condition declined rapidly afterward.
Demolition, communal use, and state ownership
Most of the complex was dismantled between 1860 and 1884. The north-western palace was demolished first, and the western two-storey wing was removed in 1883. A local school was built in 1890 on the site of the former Gothic-Renaissance palace.
From the middle of the nineteenth century until 1939, part of the complex served the local Jewish community as a synagogue, rabbi’s residence, and yeshiva, an institution devoted mainly to advanced study of religious law and traditional texts. The former southern wing was adapted for the synagogue, while the complex also accommodated the rabbi’s apartment and the school.
The Czechoslovak state expropriated the chateau in 1924 under the first land reform and transferred it to the municipality. The buildings were subsequently used partly as housing and partly for local school purposes. From 1950, the property was associated with an agricultural cooperative. In 1993, it was returned to former owners. The surviving remains had been declared a cultural monument in 1958, and general repairs in 1964 gave the building its present architectural forms.
Endangerment and reconstruction
A private owner acquired the building in 1994 but did not begin the promised reconstruction. Stephen Weeks and his company, Monumental Trust Bohemia Co., bought it in 2004 for repair and commercial use, but that project was not launched. Further unprofessional interventions contributed to the building’s severe deterioration. Since 2001, the property had been listed among the Czech Republic’s endangered immovable monuments and was considered threatened with demolition.
Dmitri Eremeev and Monica Salvatore-Eremeev, a Russian-Italian couple with Czech roots, bought the chateau in early 2008. They began a comprehensive reconstruction using their own funds, following a project by architect Olga Kantová. Between 2008 and 2016, the chateau and surrounding park were restored under preservation supervision and in cooperation with the municipal authorities. The restored family residence became partly accessible to the public in May 2016 and has since supported cultural and ceremonial activities. The surviving parts remain registered as cultural monuments of the Czech Republic, while the modern owners promote the name Savoia Castle as an allusion to Maria Theresa’s Savoy connection.
Archaeological research in the courtyard between the chateau and the school building in 2009 and 2010 revealed previously unknown parts of the Early Gothic castle, including the foundations of a massive circular bergfried. A bergfried was a substantial medieval castle tower used for defense and as a strong refuge rather than as a permanent residence.
Traditions associated with Škvorec
Count Cagliostro, an adventurer and mystic, is traditionally said to have stayed at Škvorec in 1780. The story claims that he was provided with the castle, a nearby laboratory, a library, and servants. A possible meeting between Cagliostro and Giacomo Casanova remains legendary rather than established. The tradition places Cagliostro at the castle in 1780 and Casanova there in 1785 and 1786.
A detachment under the Russian commander Alexander Suvorov may also have been quartered at Škvorec in 1800, when the castle was already serving the administrative needs of the Liechtenstein estate.
Remains
Setting and overall layout
The castle occupied the end of a rocky spur separated from the rest of the spur by a broad, water-filled moat. The surviving chateau stands on a small rocky hillock and has a broken-U ground plan. Its wings measure approximately 26, 17, and 13 metres, with the longest wing forming the southern side. The remaining wings are two storeys high and consist chiefly of the Baroque-modified south-eastern part of the former complex.
Entrance bridge and gate tower
The entrance lies in the south-eastern corner beneath a small turret or gatehouse tower. A stone bridge with two arches crosses the former castle moat and leads to the gate. The entrance arrangement belongs to the surviving physical structure that connects the present chateau with the defensive organization of the earlier castle.
Early Gothic and later Gothic remains
Original palace and well
The earliest Early Gothic palace stood on the site now occupied by the school building. It probably formed the principal residential and defensive element of the first castle. A deep well cut into the granite rock survives near the palace site, together with a side wall of the former building. These elements belong to the earliest phase of the complex.
Expanded Gothic castle
Around 1400, the castle was enlarged into a two-palace arrangement. An oblong tower with a pointed-arched gate and a smaller pedestrian wicket was built opposite the older palace. Drawbridges crossed the newly dug moat. East of the entrance tower stood a second Gothic palace with a chapel. A chaplain named Václav appears in a record from 1404, and the chapel probably occupied the palace on the front side of the castle.
Recovered bergfried foundations
Excavations in the courtyard between the chateau and the school in 2009 and 2010 uncovered the foundations of a circular bergfried approximately 12 metres in diameter. Its walls were about 4 metres thick. The discovery added a major defensive element to the known plan of the Early Gothic castle.
Renaissance and Baroque chateau
Enclosed Renaissance courtyard
The Renaissance reconstruction created an enclosed rectangular courtyard. It probably added the western range with arcades and a building on the eastern side. A description from 1618 refers to a vaulted room called the Stone Hall, the lord’s apartments, an armoury, offices and rooms for estate officials, and economic or service facilities on the ground floor.
Surviving south-eastern section
The present complex consists chiefly of the former south-eastern section, altered during the Baroque period. Its surviving wings retain the two-storey arrangement, while the entrance tower and old courtyard well remain among the principal elements of the historic fabric. The chateau and surrounding park underwent comprehensive restoration between 2008 and 2016.
Later adaptations and surviving relationships
Synagogue and Jewish educational buildings
The former southern wing was adapted for use as a synagogue from around the late 1850s. Until 1939, the complex also contained a rabbi’s apartment and a yeshiva. This phase added religious and educational functions to buildings that had earlier served noble, residential, and administrative purposes.
School site and demolished palaces
The northern and western palaces were dismantled between 1860 and 1884. The school built in 1890 occupies the site of the demolished Gothic-Renaissance palace. The Baroque south-eastern section, entrance tower, and old courtyard well therefore form the principal surviving elements of the former castle complex.
