Loučeň Chateau

Loučeň Chateau

In Loučeň in Central Bohemia, there is a romantic Baroque chateau with a large park, labyrinths and other sites. The exposition of the Czech part of the Thurn-Taxis family introduces the life of the aristocracy in the chateau at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The tour does not only offer data but describes the story of life in the chateau about a hundred years ago.

Chateau history

Loučeň Chateau is about 30 kilometres northeast of Prague in Central Bohemia. It is one of the few chateaux that is open year-round, so you can visit it in the summer or in the winter. And it is the only chateau in the Czech Republic that presents the noble family of Thurn-Taxis, who lived there from the beginning of the 19th century to the 20th century. The exposition presents the family as well as their business activities. They were mainly involved in transportation and postal services, in Italy and Central Europe.

Loučeň Chateau was built on the site of a former medieval fortress. All the surrounding villages were affected by looting armies during the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century. The original medieval fortress in Loučeň dilapidated and the owner started to transform it into a Baroque chateau at the beginning of the 18th century. A chapel was built on the side of the chateau, later rebuilt into the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In 1809, Prince Maxmilián Thurn-Taxis acquired the chateau. In 1813, the Thurn-Taxis hosted Austrian Emperor Francis I and Russian Czar Alexander I. Unfortunately, the chateau was looted by the Soviet Army at the end of WWII and a lot of the precious furniture was lost. The building was then damaged even further by the Czechoslovak Communist regime when they established a vocational school there. It took a long time to restore the chateau and it was opened to the public in 2007.

Unusual tours

During the year there are many thematic tours and accompanying programmes prepared in the chateau. Do you know how they used to eat or how Christmas was celebrated? What were the competences and liabilities of the individual servers? Do you know what the surrounding villages thought of the chateau, or where the oldest football team is in Bohemia? Why do we call taxis TAXI? You will find answers to these and many more questions during a tour.

When you finish the tour of the chateau, do not miss the labyrinth in the chateau park. There are eleven ways to get lost in the labyrinth. The chateau area also offers a wide range of accommodation. The chateau hotel Maxmilián was opened in 2003, it is located under the Baroque terrace of the chateau in the building that was built as an office house for the Loučeň estate of the Thurn-Taxis family in 1834.