Ratibořice Castle is a Neoclassical château in the Babiččino údolí valley near Náchod, administered by the National Heritage Institute.
Ratibořice Castle is located in the Babiččino údolí valley near Náchod. It acquired its present Neoclassical and Empire form through a reconstruction in 1825–1826 and further alterations in 1860–1864. It is administered by the National Heritage Institute, through its territorial heritage administration at Sychrov.[1]
History
The first written mention of a manorial seat and a village in Ratibořice dates from 1388. The knight Vaněk of Žampach, who styled himself "of Ratibořice", is named as the owner. From 1464 Ratibořice belonged to the Rýzmburk estate. The original fortress stood uninhabited, gradually fell into disrepair and disappeared at the end of the 16th century.[1]
In 1582 the Smiřický of Smiřice family bought Ratibořice and Rýzmburk, and both estates were attached to the Náchod estate. After the Battle of White Mountain the estate was acquired by the Trčka of Lípa family. The last Czech owner from this family, Adam Erdmann Trčka of Lípa, was murdered in Cheb in 1634 together with his brother-in-law Albrecht of Wallenstein.[1]
In the same year Emperor Ferdinand II ceded the Náchod estate to Prince Ottavio Piccolomini. In 1702–1708 Prince Lorenzo Piccolomini had a Baroque small château built in Ratibořice, modelled on Italian pleasure villas and known as the "casino". It served as a summer and hunting residence.[1]
In 1792 the Náchod estate was bought by Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland and Sagan. After his death in 1800, Náchod and Ratibořice were inherited by his eldest daughter, Duchess Catherine Frederica Wilhelmina Benigna of Sagan (1781–1839), who chose Ratibořice as her permanent summer residence. In 1825–1826 she had the château rebuilt in the Neoclassical and Empire style. In the surroundings she established a landscape park, gradually extended to the whole valley of the Úpa river, and had a hunting pavilion and a palm house built.[1]
The Duchess of Sagan hosted a number of notable figures at the château, among them the Austrian chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich and the Russian tsar Alexander I. In 1813 she lent the château for secret negotiations between diplomats of Prussia, Russia and Austria on an anti-Napoleonic coalition.[1]
After the death of the Duchess of Sagan in 1839, the estate was sold in 1840 to the imperial count Octavian of Lippe-Biesterfeld. In 1842 it was bought by George William, Imperial Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, the sovereign ruler of one of the small north German principalities, together with 114 villages and small towns, a number of industrial plants and the châteaux in Náchod, Chvalkovice and Ratibořice. The Schaumburg-Lippe family had the château altered to its present form in 1860–1864. Members of the family were linked by marriage to European royal courts, in particular the Danish royal family. The château remained in the family's possession until nationalisation in 1945.[1]
Connection with Božena Němcová
The château and the adjoining Babiččino údolí valley are visited mainly in connection with the work of the Czech writer Božena Němcová (1820–1862). The Duchess of Sagan is known to the public as the "paní kněžna" (the lady princess) of her novel Babička (The Grandmother). The book is an idealised picture of the writer's childhood and early youth, which she spent with her parents, siblings and grandmother in Ratibořice, and it tells of the life of the rural people, their everyday worries and joys.[1]
Present state
Together with the other sites in the Babiččino údolí valley, the château is administered by the National Heritage Institute, through its territorial heritage administration at Sychrov.[1]