Choltice

A half-built baroque château of the Thun family (finished 1670–78) whose octagonal chapel of St Romedius, 24.5 m of stucco and painting, ranks among the finest early baroque spaces in the country.

Choltice is a château with a story of ambition outrunning money: Romedius Konstantin Thun commissioned a grand four-sided design from the Pisan architect Lucy di Rossi after the Thirty Years’ War, and only half of it was ever built — two baroque wings completed by 1670, closing a courtyard that opens to the village. What the Thuns did finish, they finished lavishly: the octagonal chapel of St Romedius (1678) rises 24.5 metres through Corinthian pilasters, Nuvolone stucco and painted heresies-and-saints, and counts among the finest early baroque interiors in Bohemia. The farm wings once held the estate brewery; today the château runs tours, and the courtyard pub serves walkers under the chestnuts.