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BLATNÁ | |
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The first historical mention of Blatná comes from a deed of King
Wenceslav (Václav) I from 1235 in which Vyšemír, the first builder of a castle on a
headland between marshes, is signed as a witness. At the end of the l3th century the Bavors of Strakonice settled at Blatná. After the last member of this family, Břeněk, it came into the hands of a distant relative, Jan of Rožmitál, first recorded in 1408. He had a lake made in the marshland and the small Romanesque castle was demolished, leaving only the remains of the Romanesque chapel which can be seen in the courtyard. The débris was used to enlarge the building site on which a Gothic palace with enormous square tower arose, protected by a moat and earthworks. Entrance was by means of a drawbridge where a stone bridge now stands. The signs above the gateway recall the builders, Jan of Rožmitál and his wife, Eliška of Kravaře. Zdeněk Lev of Rožmitál decided to have a new wing added, designed by the royal architect, Benedikt Rejt (Ried). It was begun in 1528 and two three-sided oriels rising up through two storeys of both facades combined Gothic and Renaissance elements. The heavy cost of this work as well as appropriate representation as the highest official in the kingdom and large loans to the rulers Vladislav II and Ludvík Jagellon brought Zdeněk Lev heavily into debt, which his son settled by selling Blatná to Adam of Šternberk in 1541. Later owners of Blatná were Polish nobles from Rozdražov. Václav of Rozdražov built beside the square entrance tower a two-storeyed Renaissance palace connected with the Bavor wing by a low building with kitchen and rooms for the servants. By this the building of Blatná mansion was on the whole completed. Blatná remained in the hands of the Lords of Rozdražov until 1691 when the mansion was inherited by Count Jan Francis Krakovský of Kolowrat. He sold the estate at once to Arnoštka Serényiová. A great fire in 1763 heavily damaged the Rozdražov palace and the Serényi family had it restored in Baroque. Under them an Empire pavilion with a double flight of steps arose in the adjoining reserve. The last owners of Blatná, the Hildprandts of Ottenhausen, gained it in 1798. František Hildprandt, whose tutor in philosophy and the natural sciences was Jan Evangelista Purkyně, had the Romanesque chapel and loggia pulled down to permit a view of the English park from the courtyard and also made alterations inside the mansion. Re-Gothicisation designed by architect Bernhard Grúber gave the mansion its present aspect. Blatná town arose at the crossroads of trade routes from Písek to Plzeň and from Strakonice to Prague. Very few ancient buildings have been preserved but we can mention the Church of the Assumption with Romanesque sacristy and the presbytery from 1414 - 1444 with reticulated vaulting. We know the authors, the master builders Staněk and his sons, Jan and Kříž. The two-paved church with diamond vaulting supported by three slender columns was completed in 1515. The cemetery chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, joined to the church by an arcade, dates from the same period. A bell-tower east of the church completes the church complex.
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