New Castle in Kostelec nad Orlicí, Empire style château in Kostelec nad Orlicí, Czech Republic.
New Castle in Kostelec nad Orlicí is a single-storey Empire-style building with a raised ground floor and a basement, its front and rear façades divided by eleven window axes and its sides by five. A central risalit of three axes on each side carries a portico of four columns. The basement holds the castle chapel.
The château was built from 1829 to 1833 by Viennese architect Jindřich Koch for Count Josef Kinský's family. Its construction coincided with a broader movement among European nobility to establish modern residences in the Empire style.
The name Nový zámek (New Castle) sets it apart from the older Baroque castle already standing in the town. On the first floor, the 2012 exhibition "Life in Biedermeier" shows restored original furniture arranged as the rooms looked before 1948; the second floor houses the Kinský Gallery, with a different exhibition each year.
The château interior can be visited, while the landscape park around it is open to the public. The park covers a large area on the western edge of town and holds an alpine garden with exotic trees; a long axial sightline runs from the château toward the ruins of Potštejn Castle.
The park holds a long axial sightline from the château toward the ruins of Potštejn Castle. In spring, thousands of snowdrops flower beneath the trees, together with yellow winter aconites. The grounds were first protected for their birds as early as 1949.
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