Temple of the Three Graces, Hunting lodge in Charvátská Nová Ves, Czech Republic.
The Temple of the Three Graces is a Neoclassical maison de plaisance in Charvátská Nová Ves, built 1824–25 by Joseph Franz Engel. Its convex semicircular facade has twelve Ionic columns on a dark stone plinth, with a flat entablature bearing circular medallions. Behind the columns, rectangular niches hold ten allegorical sculptures by Josef Klieber; a three-figure group by Johann Martin Fischer stands on a square pedestal in front.
The structure was built between 1824 and 1825 under Prince Johann I of Liechtenstein, designed by architect Joseph Franz Engel. This construction period marked a time when classical design was favored for aristocratic estates across Europe.
The three nude female figures stand in front of the colonnade, not inside, on a pedestal. Despite the name, they are not the Graces: the sources identify them as Artemis, Athene and Aphrodite, though one holds Minerva's helmet, another Mercury's wing and the third myrtle. The sculptor was Johann Martin Fischer, 1799.
Only the exterior of the building is open to visitors; the salon with its mosaic floor and marble walls cannot be entered. The structure stands on the southern bank of the Prostřední rybník, set slightly back from the water and aligned with the Teichschlösschen on the opposite shore. The Boří les forest lies to the south.
The central salon originally held a statue of a bathing Venus on a granite pedestal, carved by Leopold Kissling after a model from the Vatican. Its walls are clad in marble taken from a dissolved monastery in Vranov, and the barrel vault carries a running frieze with grisaille coffering.
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