Dining room of Kynžvart Castle with its festively set table, West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Some background information:
Kynžvart Castle is a historic château located near Lázně Kynžvart in the District of Cheb in the Czech Republic. The building's architecture is due to a remodeling in the neoclassical style in the first half of the 19th century. After extensive renovations in the second half of the 1990s, the castle was reopened to the public in 2000. A guided tour takes visitors through 25 rooms of the building.
As long ago as 972, Kynžvart Castle was first mentioned in a document. However, it wasn’t the palace in this picture, but the first one of its predecessor buildings. In the 13th century, the castle was constructed newly by Ottokar II, King of Bohemia. In the 14th century, there were several changes of owners: At first, Kynžvart Castle (whose name was Koenigswart at that time) entered into possession of the noble family von Leuchtenberg. But after it had been bought by Henry IX von Plauen (from the Reuss dynasty) in 1387, it fell into the hands of the Bohemian nobleman Boresch V von Riesenburg, who was an adviser of the Holy Roman Emperor Karl IV, just five years later. In 1400, the estate entered into possession of the family von Plauen again.
During the Hussite Wars in the first half of the 15th century, the manor was devastated several times. In 1506, Henry III von Plauen was forcefully expelled from his demesne Koenigswart by the brothers von Gutenstein. But after the Bohemian family Pflugk zu Rabenstein had taken ownership of the estate shortly afterwards, it passed to the Franconian-Bohemian noble family von Zedtwitz und Liebenstein.
At the end of the 16th century, this Protestant noble family converted Koenigswart into a Renaissance building. After the Battle of White Mountain, which took place in 1620 during the Thirty Years’ War, the manor was confiscated by Catholic imperial troops. In 1623, it was acquired by the noble House of Metternich, in whose possession it remained until 1945, when it was confiscated again.
Between 1681 and 1691, Earl Philipp Emmerich von Metternich had Koenigswart converted into a Baroque residence. But today’s appearance of Kynžvart Castle was commissioned by Klemens Wenzel Lothar, Prince Metternich, who received the palace as a present from his father. On his behalf, Koenigswart Castle was rebuilt by Peter von Nobile, architect to the Austrian imperial court, and between 1821 and 1836 transformed into the neoclassical and Empire style palace, which it is still today.
However, Prince Metternich was much more than just the owner of Kynžvart Castle, which he used as his summer residence. As the Austrian Empire’s chancellor and foreign minister, he was one of Europe’s most powerful statesmen and politicians of his time. From his many merits as a gifted diplomat, his chairmanship at the Congress of Vienna simply protrudes. The goal of this event was to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I. But while the Congress was still proceeding, Napoleon returned from his exile on the island of Elba, beginning what was later named his "Hundred Days" rulership.
Napoleon’s final defeat in the Battle of Waterloo took place after the final act of the Vienna Congress had been signed. Nevertheless, today’s historians don’t see the results of the Congress of Vienna in such a rosy light. Instead, they criticise the Congress for causing the subsequent suppression of the emerging national and liberal movements as well as for having been a reactionary movement for the benefit of the traditional monarchs.
Prince Metternich met Napoleon I on several occasions. And although both were opposing players, it seems as if Napoleon commanded admiration from Metternich. At least, several paintings of Napoleon and is first wife Joséphine in the rooms of Kynžvart Castle suggest this assumption.
Kynžvart Castle is surrounded by an English landscaped garden of more than 100 hectares. There are also several outbuildings, one of these serves as a restaurant today. Among the many visitable rooms inside the palace, the library is definitely the most precious one. It includes more than 200 examples of incunabula, medieval manuscripts, valuable prints, scientific books, and scientific encyclopedias.
But Kynžvart also stores the complete estate of the French novelist Alexandre Dumas père. Richard von Metternich and Dumas got to know each other while Metternich served as an ambassador at the court of Napoleon III and made friends. After Dumas’s death, his daughter bestowed his legacy on the Metternich family. Last but not least, there’s also a museum inside, which displays the castle's natural science collections, coins, historical and technological curiosities, manuscripts, ancient Egyptian monuments, marble sculptures and pieces of Oriental art.
