Býchory Castle (Schloss Býchory): A Tudor Gothic Residence
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.1
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Schloss Býchory, also known as Býchory Castle, is a nineteenth-century residence in Býchory, Czechia, built and remodelled in the Tudor Gothic style. Its development began with an earlier fortress and buildings associated with the Veith family, before the site became the principal residence of František Horský of Horskýsfeld and later the home of the violinist Jan Kubelík.
From the Veith estate to a new residence
The site had earlier associations with a Býchory fortress and with buildings erected by the Veith family. Around 1835, Wenzel Baron Veith, owner of the Kolín estate, built a single-storey château there. The estate also contained a gaming house and a residential villa, later known as the old castle or Villa Veith.
Around 1860, František Horský of Horskýsfeld, a nineteenth-century knight and aristocratic landowner, abandoned an expensive reconstruction of Kolín Castle and selected Býchory for his family residence. The new castle was built in 1865 and 1866 by Vincenc Starý and the master carpenter Kovařík, following designs by the Viennese architect Moritz Hinträger. Hinträger’s plans closely followed his earlier proposals for rebuilding Kolín Castle.
About 1870, Horský ordered a further remodelling of the building in the Tudor Gothic style. This nineteenth-century historicist approach reinterpreted late-medieval English Tudor architecture through features such as towers, crenellations, steep roof forms, and irregular plans.
Changes of ownership
After František Horský died on 6 April 1877, the castle passed first to his son-in-law Hans Berlepsch and then to his grandson Adolf Richter. In the 1890s, Prince Philipp Ernst Maria Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, the owner of the Poděbrady estate, acquired it for his ten-year-old daughter Maria. After Maria’s tragic death or fatal accident in 1897, Philipp Ernst ceased visiting the castle. He sold the property in 1904 to Jan Kubelík, a prominent violinist.
Jan Kubelík lived at Býchory with his wife Marianna. During their ownership, the castle became a setting for social and cultural life, receiving guests such as Oskar Nedbal and Josef Bohuslav Foerster. Their son Rafael Kubelík, who later became a major conductor and composer, was born there in 1914.
War, nationalization, and institutional use
In 1916, during the First World War, the Kubelík family decided to move to Slovakia and sold the property to Eugen and Johana Tauber. The state confiscated the property in 1920, and it was placed under forced administration in 1943. This arrangement transferred effective management to the state without necessarily constituting an immediate formal change of ownership.
After the war, Jan Čipera, the son of the previous owners, briefly took over the castle in 1946. The property was nationalized in May 1948. It subsequently housed a chemistry school, an orphanage from 1957, and later another educational institution. Renovation for institutional use in 1985 adversely altered the building’s appearance. The institution remained at the castle until 2000.
Recent ownership and protection
During the 1990s, the property was returned to former owners or members of their family. It was later sold to private owners, including the entrepreneur Kabát in 1998. The vacant complex deteriorated, and ElitProfit acquired it in 2007. Restoration and conversion into a plastic-surgery clinic were planned.
Schloss Býchory is protected within the Czech Republic’s monument-protection system as a cultural monument under catalogue number 1000126045.
Remains
Schloss Býchory occupies the southern part of Býchory and stands within an English landscape park, a garden style arranged to appear natural through lawns, trees, paths, and controlled views rather than a rigid geometric plan. The park is inaccessible and overgrown. The castle complex has a fragmented H-shaped plan, with a two-storey main building and a corner tower that rises four storeys to approximately 25 metres.
Castle complex and connected buildings
The nineteenth-century complex incorporated the earlier building on the site and added northern and southern wings. A tower was placed at the south-eastern corner. The old castle, or Villa Veith, and the new castle were linked by a covered passage, while the southern wing is connected to the main building by a modern corridor.
The building is designed in a Neo-Gothic Tudor style and carries towers and crenellations. Its eastern facade received the more elaborate treatment. A niche on the first floor contains an old statue of a female figure, and the southern corner is marked by the tall tower. The northern facade is simpler in design.
Alterations and surviving condition
A modern extension was added on the eastern side during the 1950s. During the building’s use as an educational institution, all architectural ornamentation was removed from Villa Veith. The 1985 renovation further changed the appearance of the complex, and after the institution left in 2000, the largely vacant buildings rapidly deteriorated.
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