Měšice Castle, Rococo château in Měšice, Czech Republic
Měšice Castle is a Rococo château built by Antonín Haffenecker in the 1760s–1790s for the Nostitz-Rieneck family, 14 km northeast of Prague. Its two-storey main block has a triangular pediment with a clock by Sebastian Londensperger (1774), and the first-floor hall is painted with frescoes by Josef Hager (1771).
The Měšice estate is documented from 1434, when a fortress stood about 300 m south of today's building; the Nostitz-Rieneck family acquired it in 1677. In 1767 Franz Anton von Nostitz-Rieneck had the old fortress demolished and Anton Haffenecker build the two-storey Rococo château, completed in 1775, with side wings added 1780–1790. The family was expropriated in 1945.
The château chapel of St. Elizabeth was divided into several rooms in 1948. The first-floor hall, decorated in 1771 with paintings by Josef Hager, and the chapel frescoes of 1775 by Wenzel Ambrozzi with biblical scenes are the most valuable interiors.
The château stands at the southern edge of Měšice, 14–15 km northeast of Prague, beside the Mladá Boleslav–Prague railway line. Since 1996 it has belonged to the municipality, which leases it to the CIOP integrated oncological care centre, so the interiors are not open to the public.
In 1775 Josef Tadeáš Klinkoš installed on the roof one of Bohemia's first lightning rods, built to Benjamin Franklin's design; the conductor still stands on the castle. The facade clock by Prague horologist Sebastian Londensperger dates from 1774 and was restored and restarted on 1 May 2006.
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