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Founded: 11th centuryCategory: Castles and fortifications in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
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Château de Martinvast was built in three different centuries: 11th, 16th and 19th centuries. The first castle was ruined in the Hundred Years' War and rebuilt between 1579 and 1581 by Bertholde du Moncel, with a wingframed by two large, square protucing fortified lodges. Of the medieval construction which remained, he only retained the keep. It was at that time surrrounded by moats and marshland. From 1820 to 1867, one of his descendants, Count Alexandre du Moncel, a brigadier and french peer, restored it to make it habitable and flanked it with four towers. Furthermore, he did away with the moats and dried out the marshland.
In 1867, Château de Martinvast was sold to Baron Arthur de Schickler, banker to the king of Prussia in Berlin and transformed into a neo-Gothic Château by the addition of a medieval gallery to the north and the erection of a wing in the same style which connected the keep and the 16th century construction. The architect entrusted with this transformation was the Englishman William Henry White, who had worked on numerous buildings in Paris.
In 1944, the 16th century construction was completely burnt to the ground by a British incendiary bomb, at the same timeas an American bomb blastdestroyed half of the neo-Gothic wing built in the 19th century.
The unique English park of 100 hectares is embellished with forest, meadows, gardens, ponds, waterfalls and an 19th century obelisk. Today Château de Martinvast is a hotel.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.