Zámek Liblice

Liblice Castle is located outside the village of Liblice near Byšice in the Mělník District, Central Bohemia. A fortress is attested in 1375 (Jan z Liblice); later followed Smiřický, Vliněvský, Špetle and in 1669 Daniel Norbert Pachta von Rájov. Count Arnošt Josef Pachta had a new country seat built in 1699–1706 according to a design by Giovanni Battista Alliprandi (based on J. B. Fischer von Erlach, without his sculptural decor). Construction management G. A. Pessina and J. Mytmayer, stucco Domenico Spezza, stonemason Giovanni Paolo Toscana. The type – courtyard of honor, oval central section, lateral residential wings – thus appeared for the first time in Bohemia and influenced other palaces and castles.

After 1770, Ignaz Franz Platzer added the balcony with putto allegories of geography and astronomy; the Sala terrena received frescoes. In the 1780s, the economy and servants' wing were expanded. In the mid-19th century, Vojtěch Dejm von Střítež bought it, in 1863 Countess Antonie von Waldstein, who had the interiors redesigned in an eclectic Neo-Renaissance style (ceiling painting by Emil Lauffer). The heiress was her daughter Christiana, who was married to Thun-Hohenstein. The family owned the castle until their expropriation and expulsion by the communists in 1945.

From 1952, it was used by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In May 1963, the Liblice Kafka Conference took place here. From 2001–2007, a comprehensive renovation followed with EU funds.

The three-story, three-wing building has an entrance hall and a two-story ballroom in the elliptical central part, and living rooms in the rectangular wings. In front of it is a French courtyard of honor with outbuildings and a gate; behind it are a garden, a pond, a Neo-Romanesque Chapel of Mary with the Thun coat of arms, and a wildlife park with a nature trail. The castle is a cultural monument. It serves the Academy of Sciences as a conference center with a hotel, restaurant, and wellness; park daily, castle tours on Sundays or by appointment.