Abstract
The magnificent Baroque world ended with the rule of Maria Theresa. The new era of enlightened absolutism turned away from the vast wealth of Baroque culture, and sober Classicism apparently corresponded to it.
The abbots of the great monasteries, who played such an important role in the High Baroque era, disappeared from the circle of prominent builders and commissioners of works of art. On the other hand, compared to the previous period, there was higher number of construction by the state.
But they were most often utility buildings, without many artistic demands. As concerns the role of patrons and builders, even the third state did not become more prominent in the countries of the Habsburg Empire.
The leading role in this field belonged to the nobility. The part of the aristocracy settled in the Czech lands undoubtedly shared the feeling of patriotism.
It, therefore, played a decisive role in establishing artistic, cultural and educational institutions that had formed a cultural climate in the country. At the same time, by its cosmopolitanism, the aristocracy connected Czech lands with European cultural focal points.
Members of the aristocratic families who had their estates in the Czech lands left with the diplomatic mission to the royal courts in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, London or Italy.
They travelled to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France and England. They then brought their experience to Bohemia and Moravia.
The highlight of the building work of the aristocratic families was traditionally a palace in the city and a castle in the countryside. In addition, great attention was paid to the foundation or rebuilding of parks, sometimes equipped with park buildings.
However, at the same time, a number of other buildings were built on the nobility's estates, which belonged to the residences, served the needs of the economy, or were connected with the actual or ideal duty of aristocracy to take care of the parish on the estates or the education of the inhabitants. In the best architectural works that grew up in those days, we will see the French culture, be it the style of Louis XVI, the so-called "revolutionary" classicism or the Napoleonic Empire style.
Nevertheless, there is also a continuation of English classicism, and the response to the architecture of Berlin or Dresden is not surprising. In addition, of course, the close ties with the Vienna metropolis and its culture are very significant.
At least some of the architectural works that originated in Bohemia and Moravia at that time exceed their significance within the framework of the Czech lands, as well as the Kačina chateau in Chotkov or the magnificent Liechtenstein building activity in the Valtice-Lednice domain. In the years before the 1848 revolution, British architecture was inspired by this neoclassical world.
The oldest buildings of this kind were the rural residences of the high aristocracy - the Hrádek Chateau at Nechanice of the count's family Harrach and the rebuilt chateaux of the princely Schwarzenberg family in Hluboká nad Vltavou and the Liechtenstein family in Lednice in South Moravia. The bearers of the new stream were the builders of the highest and richest aristocratic families who, moreover, knew Great Britain personally.
However, the appearance of the chateau's reconstruction and remodelling was not exclusively affected by the inspiration from British or medieval architecture in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century. In the course of time, the Renaissance and Baroque forms were more accented in the buildings or in chateaux reconstructions, which found an intense response to the monumental buildings of the rapidly growing metropolis of the Habsburg monarchy, primarily in Okružní třída, but also in other major cities.
Since the 1950s and 1960s, the main task the architects faced was the construction of public buildings of cities. With the advent of the 19th century, the chateau was losing its former prominent exclusivity among building types.
At the same time, we start to encounter the owners and builders of chateau with the individuals who did not belong to the old aristocracy and obtained the peerage due to their business skills and merits or were did not have the title at all, as was the case with Josef Hlávka, the owner of the manor and castle in the West Bohemian Lužany. This fact also shows the great changes in society during the second half of the 19th century.
The subject of this book dedicated to the aristocratic residences between 1780 and 1914 is not only the opulent residences built by the leading aristocratic families but also the smaller and more modest castles in Bohemia and Moravia built or rebuilt in the period up to the beginning of the First World War.