Horní Maršov Castle, Renaissance Revival château in Horní Maršov, Czech Republic.
Horní Maršov Castle is a stone structure displaying Renaissance Revival architecture, marked by symmetrical windows, decorative cornices, and a central entrance framed by columns. The building showcases the typical features of this architectural style as applied during 19th-century renovations.
In 1744 Horní Maršov became an independent estate held by the Schaffgotsch family. In 1792 Jan Berthold Schaffgotsch and his son-in-law Alfons Aichelburg had a late-Baroque château built on the site of a manor house. Alfons Aichelburg rebuilt it in 1869 in Neo-Renaissance style, adding three rear wings around a roughly square courtyard and a tower with an onion dome.
The castle has been a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. After 1945 it served as a primary school, a children's home and even a cinema, and since 1997 it has been privately owned; it is closed to the public, so the interior cannot be visited. The village mayor Pavel Mrázek mediated the 2024 sale talks.
The château stands in Horní Maršov, closed to the public; only the front façade was repaired while the rest decayed, and a fire on 19 August 2018 damaged the unused building. Restoration work on the site began in July 2026, with a hotel-type home for the elderly planned and the castle park to be revitalised, so expect construction activity.
The August 2018 fire was no accident: the owner, Vladimír Racek, was sentenced in November 2020 by the Prague High Court to nine years in prison for ordering the arson, reportedly to lower the purchase price. The castle had stood unused since 1994.
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