Po hradech a zříceninách Českého středohoří
Chateau park
Today's chateau park starts out as a French garden with neatly trimmed
bushes, little sandy paths, and colourful flowerbeds. After a bit, the little
paths give way to footpaths which skirt the trees and the park changes into an
English natural park, which was created along the river Ohře to replace the
floodplain forest originally here. On the path near the water are underground
vaults that one can visit, these extend underneath the entire chateau and part
of the courtyard. The Libochovice chateau's garden was probably founded at the
start of the 17th century, but we do not know how it looked. In 1685 the
chateau owner, Gundakar of the Deitrichsteins, took into his service gardener
Jan Tulipán, who built up the gardens on the plans of Antonia della Porto and
used the gardens of Versailles as a model.
Later, in 1822, the gardens were transformed into an English style park by
gardener Seigrsmidt. At that time the estates were owned by duke Jan Karel
Dietrichstein. In 1857 waterpipes were installed in the entire park for
irrigation. The southern border of the park is made by the river Ohře, which
caused great damage when it flooded, therefore part of the park was protected by
a dike. A year later, countess Terezie Herberstein came into ownership of the
estates. Under her, for example, the collection of tropical plants in the
greenhouse was expanded and a large flowered area was created in front of the
entrance to the gardens. After the death of the countess in 1895, her son count
Josef Herberstein took ownership of the estates. In 1912, the area in front of
the chateau was reconstructed according to the original 1685 plans by architect
Antonia della Porto. The gardens were also cut back to create vistas of lovely
areas from various places in the park. The main focus of these vistas is the
castle Hazmburk. These changes were designed by Josef Rublič and the work was
performed under head gardener M. Hrbek. When Hrbek died in 1917, Rublič
undertook to finish it by himself. After the First World War an alpine rockery
and a rose garden were added. In the greenhouse were a large collection of palms
and exotic plants including coffee trees and many rare plants. Some of these
were brought by count Herberstein himself from his travels in Africa and Asia.
Rublič also was dedicated to cultivation and in these greenhouses he built up
the largest collection of Begonias of species rex.
Peacock at Libochovice chateau
View of the chateau park
