Dub Château

Dub Château is a small, privately owned castle in South Bohemia, roughly 10 km north of Prachatice, in the village of Dub. Unlike the region's grand tourist castles, Dub has stayed a quiet family estate that only reopened to visitors in recent decades.

Where is the castle and what does it look like?

The building sits on a gentle rise beside the village of Dub, enclosed by a neo-Gothic wall that separates its landscaped park — laid out in the second half of the 19th century — from the village square. The castle itself forms a single-storey, four-wing block arranged around an inner courtyard on an elongated rectangular plan. Its south-facing main façade is dominated by a columned veranda with a clock tower above the entrance, a hallmark of the mid-19th-century remodeling that drew on Norman Gothic forms. The walls mix moulded brick and terracotta detailing with plain plastered surfaces.

How did the estate change over the centuries?

From a medieval stronghold to a Renaissance manor

Settlement here predates the Hussite wars, and the village of Dub itself is first recorded in 1274. A fortified manor house — a tvrz — is documented on the site from 1543, when it belonged to Diviš Boubínský of Újezd. After 1570 the property passed to the Leskovec family, and around the turn of the 17th century Pavel Kavka of Říčany and his wife Anežka of Hodějov rebuilt the old stronghold into an enclosed four-wing residence with a central courtyard — the basic footprint that survives today. Ownership then changed hands repeatedly: Count Karel Filip Buquoy consolidated the estate in 1689, and between 1741 and 1839 it passed through several more owners, among them Erasmus Zucker, Jan František Armand, Jan Zádubský, Jakub Veith, Ondřej Neuhold and Jan Nádherný.

The 19th-century neo-Gothic rebuild

The castle's present appearance dates from the ownership of Mořic Hönigstein, who held the estate from 1839 to 1865. He commissioned Josef Niklas, a professor at Prague's technical school, to convert the older building into a neo-Gothic residence; the work ran from 1854 to 1860. Despite the scale of that rebuild, older Renaissance stonework survives, including reused window frames carved with the coats of arms of the Říčan and Hodějovský families. After Hönigstein, the estate belonged in turn to the Odkolek and Bromovský families, right up to the Second World War.

What can visitors see inside today?

Two features stand out for visitors: a floor in the former kitchen laid out in an ancient Greek meander pattern, and a piano in the concert hall from a production run of only eight instruments ever made. The rooms open to the public also host exhibitions of Art Nouveau- and First Republic-era clothing, alongside photographs of notable old trees produced in cooperation with the forestry faculty of Mendel University. The turbulent history of the estate and its residents even fed into fiction — a 19th-century Czech novelist drew on real events at Dub for one of his novels.

Who owns and runs the castle today?

Since 1998, following its return to private hands through restitution, Dub Château has belonged to Jana-Marie and Jaroslav di Battaglia. It remains a private, lived-in estate, but the owners open it to the public year-round and personally lead tours while continuing restoration work. The building is protected as a Czech cultural monument and is occasionally rented out for concerts, exhibitions, weddings and other private events.

Frequently asked questions

Is Dub Château open to visitors? Yes, it is open year-round, typically from 9:00 to 17:00. Because it is a small, family-run site, calling ahead to book a tour is recommended.

How far is it from Prachatice? About 10 km north of Prachatice, in the village of Dub.

What is the castle best known for inside? An ancient Greek meander-pattern floor in the old kitchen, and a rare piano in the concert hall — one of only eight ever produced.

Is this the same as other villages called Dub in the Czech Republic? No. Several Czech villages share the name Dub. This castle stands specifically in Dub, Prachatice District, in the South Bohemian Region — the only Dub with a surviving castle matching this history and architecture.