Průhonice - Official website     

The Průhonice Park was founded by the Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva-Tarouca in 1885. All his life, he was building the park following his vision and using expert knowledge of and feeling for landscape composition. The Průhonice Park was set up when the landscaping style had already reached its zenith and when English parks in Europe were enriched with plants of exotic origin. Free arrangement of park areas is typical in Průhonice. Wood stands, groups of trees and bushes take turns with open meadows, fishponds, streams, and their blind arms. Park composition is based mainly on masterfully selected vistas. The Botič Stream has become the axis of the whole area. The changeability of wood species in various seasons is skilfully used with stress laid on colour effects – when they are sprouting, in blossom or change colours of their leaves in the autumn. You will hardly encounter regular shapes here, except for the regularly designed part of the Large Courtyard.  The Průhonice Park is a supreme landscaping masterpiece on the European continent.  Woods of home origin are uniquely combined with imported foreign species. For many of them, Průhonice became the entrance gate to Bohemia and, consequently, to Europe.      

Apart from its artistic and historical significance, the park is also of high dendrological value as a collection of local and exotic plants – about 1,800 wood taxa and cultivars. The best known genus grown in the Průhonice Park is rhododendron; some 8000 plants belonging to 100 taxa and cultivars are grown in the park.  A unique 3-hectare alpine garden with numerous rocks and hillsides where 3,000 alpine plants, perennials and trees are grown forms a part of the park. The park area covers 250 hectares with about 23 km of footpaths.

During recent years, the park has become a sanctuary to numerous plant and animal species which move here from the surrounding landscape exposed to a precipitate urban development. A considerable wealth of plant, fungi, and animal gene pools can be preserved thanks to favourable conditions prevailing in the park. Valuable forest and meadow communities remain preserved in its territory.

The Průhonice Park has been included in the Cultural Heritage List of 1^st category and the Historical Gardens List, issued by the ICOMOS international organization.

Valuable gene pool collections and dendrological archives include a collection of conifer cones and seeds of coniferous and deciduous wood species, samples of wood and bark. The collection serves for study purposes.

Collections of the rhododendron, iris, peony, rose, daylily (hemerocallis) and water lily taxa and cultivars are concentrated in the botanical garden area in Chotobuz, accessible to the public when in blossom.

The  Institute of  Botany of  the Academy of Sciences of the CR has been based in the Průhonice Castle since 1962. It is a place of dynamic development of science and research in the whole scope of botanical disciplines, including classic taxonomy, biosystematics and the evolution of plants and selected groups of fungi, ecology, ecophysiology, phytogeography and vegetation mapping, dendrochronology, wood anatomy study, caryological and population and genetic studies, with the dimension of broad cooperation at the national and international levels.     

The contemporary shape of the Průhonice Castle has resulted from a series of reconstructions of the original small medieval Gothic castle, erected on a rocky promontory above the Botič Stream. It was built in close neighbourhood of a Romanesque manor from which only the Romanesque Church of the Holy Virgin Birth has survived. The first written reports on Průhonice owners date back to the 1270s’. Many owners were taking turns in Průhonice; in the late 18^th century, Průhonice manor declined – the castle complex started serving mainly farming purposes.  

Its new owner, Jan Nepomuk, the Count of Nostic-Rieneck, commenced an extensive reconstruction of the Průhonice Castle in the Classicist style after 1800 in order to restore its residential use. Průhonice remained in the possession of the Nostic-Rieneck family throughout 19^th century. After Marie Antonie Gabriela had become the only heir of the manor, her marriage with Arnošt Emanuel, the Count of Silva-Tarouca, in 1885 opened a new epoch in the history of Průhonice. The Count of Silva-Tarouca had the castle rebuilt in Czech Neo-Renaissance style, setting up a park around it. The reconstruction was carried out by the architect Jiří Stibral, the fresco (St. George fighting a dragon) in the Small Square was painted by Hanuš Schwaiger; the sculptural decoration (St. Hubert) was done by Celda Klouček.

The small Romanesque church of the Holy Virgin Birth is the oldest monument of the Průhonice Park area. It was built along with the fort and consecrated by Jindřich Břetislav, the Archbishop of Prague and nephew of Bohemian king Vladislav in 1187. Its Romanesque apse was demolished in a later reconstruction and its chapel extended in Gothic style. Gothic linear frescos of the first half of 14th century were discovered on its walls in 1890.   

The main wing altar depicts scenes from Our Lady’s life and comes from the workshop of the Master of Vejprnice altar from the end of 15th century. A copy of this masterpiece can be seen in the chapel.

Visitor Information

The park is open daily, all the year round.

You should best visit the park during the spring and autumn months. Every season has its own particular charm and the changing nature will provide an infinite spectrum of new knowledge or just a respite amidst of the glorious scenery.

The Castle houses a permanent exposition called the "Průhonice Castle & Park, Masterpiece of Nature and Human Mind," clarifying the castle and park history. The remaining parts of the castle are closed to the public because the  Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences is based there, involved in plant and vegetation scientific research.

For more details visit www.pruhonickypark.cz

                        E-mail: pr@ibot.cas.cz

                        Tel.: 271 015 153, 282

                        Tel./Fax: 267 750 346

Address:            Botanický ústav AVČR, v. v. i.

                        Správa Průhonického parku

                        Zámek 1, 252 43 Průhonice