zámek Malý Rohozec

Malý Rohozec Chateau is a modest manor house on the edge of Turnov, in the Semily district of the Liberec Region in northern Bohemia. It sits close to its far more famous namesake, Hrubý Rohozec, but carries its own story spanning more than four centuries under a single noble family.

When was the chateau built?

The settlement of Malý Rohozec is first documented in 1565, and from early on it formed part of the wider Rohozec estate. By the seventeenth century the estate belonged to Count Mikuláš Desfours, who in 1640 replaced the existing manor building with a Baroque chateau - the structure that forms the core of the building seen today.

Who owned the estate over the centuries?

Count Desfours's holdings passed in 1661 to his daughter Marie Markéta, who had married František Václav Černín of Chudenice. The Černín family did not hold onto Malý Rohozec for long: in 1686 Marie Polyxena Desfoursová bought the property back and reunited it with the neighbouring Hrubý Rohozec estate. The last Desfours to own the chateau was František Antonín Desfours, who managed it between 1775 and 1822.

In 1831 Prince Rohan of Sychrov acquired Malý Rohozec, and only three years later, in 1834, the estate passed to the industrialist Ferdinand Unger. Unger is the figure who gave the place its present character: he set up a brewery on the grounds and had the building remodelled in a pseudo-Renaissance style, the appearance it still shows today.

What does the building look like today?

The chateau is a single-storey, pseudo-Renaissance structure built on a rectangular plan, with its main entrance on the south side. A three-storey clock tower rises on the north side, while the centre of the facade, above the entrance, carries a balcony supported on four pillars. Both features date from the nineteenth-century remodelling commissioned by Ferdinand Unger.

What is the chateau used for now?

The building currently houses the administrative offices of the brewery operating on the site, and its ground floor holds a restaurant open to visitors. Malý Rohozec is therefore not run as a museum - it remains a working building that has nonetheless kept its historic shape, and visitors can step inside while having a meal there.

Frequently asked questions

Is Malý Rohozec the same as Hrubý Rohozec? No. They are two separate sites near Turnov. Hrubý Rohozec is the larger, better-known chateau, open to the public as a museum, while Malý Rohozec is the smaller building historically tied to it, now used as a brewery seat with an attached restaurant.

Who built the chateau as it stands now? Count Mikuláš Desfours erected the original Baroque building in 1640; its current pseudo-Renaissance look dates from the 1834 remodelling ordered by Ferdinand Unger.

Can visitors go inside Malý Rohozec? The interior is not set up as a museum exhibition, but the ground-floor restaurant is open to the public.

Where is Malý Rohozec located? It lies within Turnov, in the Semily district of the Liberec Region, close to the Hrubý Rohozec chateau.