Kacina Palace, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

Kačina is a significant empire style palace built in place of the defunct medieval village Kačín. It was built as a prestige mansion of the supreme burgrave of the Kingdom of Bohemia and president of governorate Jan Rudolf Chotek (1748–1824) from 1806 to 1824. The architectural scheme was drawn up by Saxon royal architect Christian Franz Schuricht (1753–1832) from Dresden. Johann Philipp Jöndl (1782–1870) and in the last few years also had controlled running the construction. He also eminently influenced the final appearance of the castle.

Functionally the castle is divided into three parts. The main building with exquisite halls and the residence of earl family, then two quarter circle adjacent lower wings with pillared colonnade where the guest rooms were situated. To those wings were connected other pavilions. In the right one is situated never finished mansion chapel and theatre which were finished in the first half of 19th century.

In the left one there is a Chotek's extensive library dated from 16th to 19th century. The castle is surrounded by vast park that was founded already in 1789 according to the plan of famous Viennese botanist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817), it was completed thirteen years earlier than the castle itself.

References:

Wikipedia

Church of St Donatus

The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.

The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.

The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.

MOUD Najjar (5 years ago)
A place to visit

Jiří Žaloudek (5 years ago)
Nice exhibition of historical crafts and very complex exhibitions of agriculture including historical and knowledge interactive game for kids. Recommend to visit with kids!

João Anastácio (5 years ago)
Really pretty palace, great gardens. They have a short leaflet in English but the guide won't understand any English word so if you don't speak Czech don't get high expectations.

Kacina Palace

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Church of St Donatus