Ratibořice Château offers the Baroque architecture and Bohemian landscape, ranking among the best-known and most-frequented places in East Bohemia. They have become well known to the general public thanks to Babička (The Grandmother), the most famous work of the writer Božena Němcová.
In the years 1702 to 1708 the then owner of the estate Lorenzo Piccolomini had a Baroque summer palace built at Ratibořice which he intended to use for summer sojourns and in hunting period. The small château was built in the style of Italian country villas and similarly as the château at Hostivice and Kácov, it ranked among the unique samples of this type of lordly seat in this country.
After its reconstruction in the years 1825 to 1826 the château acquired the form of an elegant seat in the late Central European Classical and Empire style. The environs in the spacious natural landscape park were adjusted simultaneously with the reconstruction work on the château building.
Today tours Ratibořice Château are available in which includes the 'Period of the Duchess of Sagan' route and the interiors on the ground from the time of the last private owners at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The interiors on the ground floor are furnished with 19th century furniture and portraits of relatives and members of the princely family of Schaumburg-Lippe and the Danish royal family, as well as a collection of Danish porcelain, English stoneware and prints.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.