About Chateau Trnová

Chateau Trnová is a stately home, formerly the seat of an aristocratic family, which is also available for commercial use. Its convenient distance from Prague (20km), structural features and furnishing make it suitable to host smaller conferences, meetings, seminars or training sessions. The lovely surroundings provide an array of opportunities for outdoor activities and team-building exercises. It can host either corporate or private social functions. With its distinctive atmosphere, Chateau Trnová might have been created specifically to host weddings.
Accommodation is also available at the chateau.

History of Chateau Trnová

The large landed family estate was first established in the district of Trnová in the 1720s.
After passing through the hands of several owners, Trnová was purchased by Sir Kristián Josef Paulin von Gfässer, Lord of Bratronice, for 20,300 gold florins on November 12th, 1759. Kristián Josef Paulin studied philosophy and law and went into practice in Bohemia (in praxi Bohemica) for a time, to better serve his emperor.
He owned Trnová for a full thirty years.
Several children were born to the knight and his wife at the chateau.
It was in this period that contemporary sources first referred to the manor house as a “zámek” or chateau. Earlier documents refer to it simply as the seat of a lord.

In 1789 Trnová was purchased by Jan Ferdinand of Schönfeld.
In line with the spirit of his times, Schönfeld was very interested in agricultural reform. Convinced that the young peasants should learn modern farming methods, in 1791 he set up a school near the Trnová estate where boys aged 12 to 18 were taught rural crafts. Schönfeld had a stone building erected to house the agricultural school, which was also home to an open elementary school and an apartment for the teacher. The boys could practice their skills on the patrimonial estate.

On the 28th of July, 1838, the Trnová estate was bought by Václav Škroup, brother of František Škroup, the composer, who was also conductor of the orchestra of the Estates Theatre and later of the orchestra of the Opera in Rotterdam, and composer of the first Czech-language opera, Dráteník (The Tinker).
It is said that František used to walk through the woods to the ridge looking over the Vltava to a place that is still known as Kazatelna (the Pulpit) today. The view of the valley of the Vltava, with its meadows and fields, had already inspired him when he composed the score for the Fidlovačka. The final song sung by the blind fiddler in Fidlovačka later became the Czech national anthem.
The family of Václav Škroup is interred in the tomb set against the south wall of the nave of the Trnová Church.

In 1860 Vincenc (alt. Čeněk) Daněk, born in 1826, purchased Trnová. A well-known Bohemian industrialist, six years earlier Daněk had founded the machine works Daněk a Spol. in Karlín, which later served as the basis for the group of companies called Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk. Later still, he was granted the aristocratic title “von Esse”, in reward for his services to the empire. Although Trnová only belonged to him for four years, he was responsible for considerable changes in its appearance. He built the clock tower and renovated both the interior and exterior of the chateau. However, driven by the desire for a larger estate, he then sold Trnová and purchased the much larger chateau at Tloskov instead.

Another owner, Maximilián, Baron Scharschmied z Adlerstreu, operated a brewery here until 1895.

In the early 20th century, the estate’s farmlands along with the chateau and court were owned by Karel Košťál. At the time, the settlement of Holubov, the mill on the Vltava, Stehlíkovský mlýn [another settlement], Samota Leznice (a pub) and U Hrnčíře, a wharf for steamships on the Vltava belonged to Trnová. There was also a gendarmerie, a two-year school and a pottery here.

On 10 August 1907, the estate was purchased by Václav Schloger. He was engaged primarily in growing grain and raising cattle and supplied very high-quality milk to Prague. In his day the famous opera singer Ema Destinnová stayed at Trnová.
Her brother-in-law arranged for her to stay at Chateau Trnová. Schloger set aside an entire wing of the chateau for her use, and she went there at the end of her tour accompanied by numerous staff. She used to like to walk around the Trnová hunting grounds with a rifle or fish, and she wore a suit with trousers on her excursions which drew a great deal of attention at the time. She stayed at Trnová regularly from 1908 to 1911.

In 1950 the region’s first agricultural cooperative was created here. The property of V. Schloger’s family was confiscated.

Initially the building of the small chateau was used to house archives, but subsequently it became a warehouse and in 1967 the entire building became private property.

Following the November Revolution in 1989, the small chateau, farmlands and grounds, by then in very poor condition, were returned under the restitution programme to the family of Václav Schloger. The free-standing building of the small chateau was declared a national cultural monument by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in 1994.
In 2006 the chateau was purchased by Ivan and Lucie Pilip, who have since renovated it completely.

Architecture of Chateau Trnová

The chateau building recalls the style of Romantic design that held sway shortly after the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, grafted onto an older core.

The oldest section of the chateau building is of Baroque origins. It was built in 1688 as housing for Dominican clergymen from the Church of St. Julius in Prague.
The small-scale single-story rectangular structure was covered by a mansard roof with skylights. The vaulted rooms in the ground floor from this period still survive.

The chateau underwent no substantial reconstruction for almost a century thereafter.
But at some point before 1789 the building was considerably expanded. Architectural records show that the chateau was a two-story building during the neoclassical period.

The building did not take on the form we see today until its reconstruction in 1860-1864, which was ordered by the then owner, Čeněk Daněk. Both of the outer buttresses on the sides of the original Baroque structure date from this period as do the large hall intended for celebrations, the adjoining terrace on the upper floor and the stairway leading to them. The open loggia, the corner turrets and the sculpted framing of the windows also date to that time.

After that, none of the other owners did any renovation work. Following its confiscation, the building was altered on multiple occasions, to its detriment, to accommodate the needs of the Agricultural Vocational School for Horse Breeders and Professional Riders.

The chateau was allowed to fall further and further into disrepair until the new owners came in 2006. Thanks to their efforts, it has now been fully reconstructed and renovated.