Kittels house, Cultural monument homestead in Krásná, Czech Republic.
Kittels House is a two-storey timbered homestead with a mansard roof at No. 10 in the centre of Krásná, about 80 metres east of the pilgrimage church of St Joseph. Its ground floor is partly masonry, with a stone cellar vaulted by barrel vaults, and a later brick annexe extends it to the west. A central corridor divides the ground floor into two halves with two black kitchens and large parlours; the upper floor, reached by a wide staircase, has its largest rooms to the north and south around a central hall.
Johann Josef Antonín Eleazar Kittel, a healer from Krásná, built the homestead around the mid-18th century; it stayed in the Kittel family until 1817. After 1945 it decayed, and the state enterprise Metrostav, owner in the later 20th century, twice sought to have its monument protection lifted. Rescue work began in 2004, reconstruction ran from 2014 to 2019, and the Kittel Museum opened in summer 2019.
The house is called "Burk", from the German Burg (castle), a name recalled in local legends about Kittel's supposed pact with the devil. His brother Ignác Kašpar Antonín Kittel ran the pharmacy inside the building, and the estate later passed to other owners in 1817. Since summer 2019 it has housed the Kittel Museum, opened after a Czech-German cross-border project.
The Kittel House Museum, which also houses the local information centre, is open year-round. Parking is about 100 metres from the homestead, near the baroque parish house and the Church of St Joseph. Buses from Jablonec nad Nisou and Železný Brod serve the village on weekdays, and cycle route 4249 passes the house, joining route 4247 at the church.
The house is nicknamed "Burk", from the German "Burg" (castle), a name tied to legends that Kittel's healing powers came from a pact with the devil. In the cellar, one small room held a water basin fed probably from springs between the house and the church.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,691 contributors worldwide.