About this place
Kostelec nad Černými lesy Castle is a Renaissance-turned-Baroque residence in the small town of Kostelec nad Černými lesy, in the Prague-East District of the Central Bohemian Region, roughly 30 km east of Prague. Today the building houses the School Forest Enterprise, a teaching estate of the Faculty of Forestry at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.
How did the castle's story begin?
The site's roots reach back to the Middle Ages: in the second half of the 13th century a royal stronghold was raised here, most likely to help defend the nearby town of Kouřim. The original fortress was known as Černý Kostelec and is first recorded in written sources in 1348. Over the following centuries it changed hands and function repeatedly, gradually becoming one of the region's more significant noble seats.
Who turned the Gothic stronghold into a Renaissance chateau?
In 1492 the estate passed to the Slavata family of Chlum and Košumberk. A turning point came in 1558, when Jaroslav Smiřický of Smiřice took ownership and made Kostelec the main seat of his family. In the same century, following a fire in 1549, the Gothic stronghold was rebuilt into a Renaissance hunting chateau; the work was overseen by the Italian architect Hans Tyrol, commissioned under Emperor Ferdinand I.
How did the Thirty Years' War change the castle's fate?
The Smiřický family, of Evangelical-Lutheran faith, joined the Estates' uprising against the Habsburgs. After the defeat at the Battle of White Mountain in 1621, Emperor Ferdinand II confiscated the entire family estate. The Černý Kostelec domain then passed to Albrecht von Wallenstein, who sold it in 1623 to Karl I of Liechtenstein — beginning more than two centuries of Liechtenstein ownership.
Where does the castle's Baroque appearance come from?
The building's present Baroque character comes from a reconstruction commissioned from 1759 by Duchess Marie Theresia of Savoy-Liechtenstein, carried out according to plans by the Tyrolean builder Josef Jäger. This rebuilding largely shaped the appearance the castle still has today.
What happened to the castle in the 20th century?
After Czechoslovakia was established in 1918, the Liechtenstein estate was affected by land reform: the Černý Kostelec domain was expropriated and passed into state ownership. Its last private owner, Prince Franz I Joseph of Liechtenstein, sold the castle to the Czechoslovak state in 1933. The state in turn handed the building over to the School Forest Enterprise of the Faculty of Forestry at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
What can visitors see at the castle today?
The castle now serves as the seat of the School Forest Enterprise, the university forest estate of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (ČZU). This gives the building an unusual combination for a Czech noble residence: historic architecture paired with an active educational and research role in forestry. The chateau stands amid the extensive, historically renowned Černé lesy (Black Forests), from which the town takes its name.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Kostelec nad Černými lesy Castle located? In the town of Kostelec nad Černými lesy, in the Prague-East District of the Central Bohemian Region, east of Prague.
Who manages the castle today? It belongs to the School Forest Enterprise of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.
In what style was the castle built? It combines Renaissance origins (a 16th-century rebuilding) with the Baroque form it received from 1759 onward.
Which family owned the castle the longest? The House of Liechtenstein, which held the estate continuously from 1623 until 1918.
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