Horní Dlouhá Loučka Castle, Baroque château in Dlouhá Loučka, Czech Republic
Horní Dlouhá Loučka is a free-standing Baroque castle built in 1708–1709 for Grand Master Franz Ludwig von Beirheim of the Teutonic Order. It has two storeys, a rectangular plan with side wings, and saddle and mansard roofs once covered with slate. Before 1838 it was extensively remodelled in Neoclassical style, and in 1838–1839 the Empire-style Chapel of St Elizabeth was added at the north corner.
The Teutonic Knights acquired Sovinec Castle together with Horní Dlouhá Loučka in 1623; in 1707 they added Dolní Dlouhá Loučka and merged the two villages. The order's grand master Franz Ludwig von Beirheim had the Baroque château built in 1708–1709 on the site of an earlier fortress. During the Napoleonic Wars it served as a hospital with 600 beds.
The castle chapel of St Elizabeth, added in 1838–1839, served the Teutonic Knights' house and was used by French officers held in the POW camp Oflag VIII H/H during 1940–1942, who painted al secco murals inside the castle. The park, laid out in the late 19th century, keeps a ginkgo, a catalpa and a tulip tree, and now hosts open-air celebrations and a disc golf course.
The castle stands in Dlouhá Loučka, Olomouc Region, and lost its monument protection on 28 April 2014; only the park and boundary walls remain protected. In April 2017 a main wall collapsed over several dozen metres, and the building has not recovered from a December 1985 fire. A 2019 study proposed start-up and care flats there, at a cost of about 100 million koruna.
The roughly two-hectare park was laid out at the end of the 19th century; part of it once served as a vegetable garden and there was an orangery. Later it was redesigned in the English style. Among the trees are a ginkgo, a catalpa, a tulip tree and other local and exotic species. Since 2015 a disc golf course has been added.
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