Chateau Ďetenice
Legend has it that Dětenice was established under the reign of the Přemysl-era Prince Oldřich during the first half of the 11th century. Oldřich used to hunt in the deep forests here with his entourage and once came across some lost and abandoned children.
Given the fact that Oldřich was a noble man, he took charge of the children, had a village built for them, and named it Dětenice in their honour (the word “dětí” in Czech means “children”). Jaroslav of Hruštice (Of Turnov) came from the powerful ancient line of Markvartic, was margrave to King Přemysl Otakar II at the royal castle of Kámen (1234-1269), and had four sons. The eldest of these sons, Beneš, had a Gothic stronghold built in Dětenice in the year 1295 and became the founder of the branch of the family that wrote from Dětenice and Valdštejn and so began to write the rich history of Dětenice.
Meanwhile, the second son of Jaroslav of Hruštice, Havel, held Rohozec castle, the third son, Vok, held Rotštejn, and the fourth son, Zdeněk, held Valdštejn castle. In the 13th century, a gothic stronghold stood in place of today’s castle. In 1503, Dětenice was owned by the Křinecký family of Ronov who in 1587 rebuilt the renaissance castle and in 1619 added a massive square tower after the Battle of White Ronov, who, 1587, and, 1619, tower. Moutain, the families’ property was confiscated and the whole estate was acquired by Albrecht of Valdštein. The castle kept this appearance only with minor changes up to this day.
In 1873, the castle and the estate were acquired by Maltese knights. The last owner was Emanuel Rěhák (builder of Vranovská dam). Řehák and his wife were given a one-roomed apartment in Kladno and the chateau and its valuable collections were for the main part looted. The comrades then set up a horticultural school for girls at the chateau, but for fear of the negative influence of this feudal or bourgeois throwback on the young gardeners, the friends of the Soviet Union rather had the chateau transformed into a special boarding school, which was commonly known as “pasťák” (a “juvie” school).
Thankfully, along came the year 1998, when the devastated chateau was bought over by the Ondráčeks. Careful and extensive reconstruction work followed, the likes of which has no equal among Czech chateaux. Dětenice Chateau was then opened to the public on the threshold of the third millennium. As to how far they succeeded in this reconstruction you can judge for yourselves on your visit to this jewel in the crown of chateaux.