Ctěnice Castle
The earliest report on the Ctěnice Castle is found in the inventory of the Strahov Monastery assets from 1273 and later documents indicate the ownership by Prague burghers. However, the local fort is only expressly mentioned in the year 1372, when the Prague burgher Jan Zeiselmeister bought it from the widow of Volflin Galm. Already at that time the area of fort was similar to the present castle courtyard. During the Hussite wars the fort was seized by the City of Prague, which ceded it to Martin Zumberger. The building got roughly the today’s appearance during a remodelling to the renaissance castle around 1550, when it was owned by the family of Hrzán from Harasov. The arcaded courtyard and outbuildings survived from this reconstruction to these days.
Other owners included the Boryňa family from Lhota, Wallenstein family and Loasy family from Losymthal.
Another important moment in the construction development of the area occurred in the second half of the 18th century, when the castle was given classical baroque look that has been retained by today. From this period also outbuildings were preserved with the Baroque granary and late Baroque barns. The whole area of buildings is an exceptionally well-preserved complex of the fort architecture that has been transformed through its architectural development into the castle complex and later into the aristocratic estate. Several years of restoration works revealed frescoes from various periods of construction in the interior of the castle. Near the castle there is also the so-called beadle house, which is a rectangular building situated alongside the road leading along the castle.
In 1993, the entire building was transferred to the ownership of the City of Prague free of charge and the Prague Information Service became its administrator. The author of the overall concept of reconstruction of the complex is the architect Ing. Arch. Heřmánek, the reconstruction of the castle has been projected by the architect Ing. Arch. Hanzal and the castle park has been projected by Ing Jiránek.
Since 1 July 2012 the whole area passed under the administration of the The City of Prague Museum.