Jezeří

A Baroque Lobkowicz chateau perched on the Krušné hory slope directly above the ČSA open-cast mine — once host to the private premiere of Beethoven's Eroica, now slowly being rescued.

Jezeří began in the 14th century as the castle Eisenberg and was rebuilt by the Lobkowicz family into one of their principal Baroque residences — in 1804 Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the Eroica, had its private premiere here for Prince Lobkowicz. The 20th century nearly destroyed it: the coal seam under the foothills brought the ČSA open-cast mine to within a few hundred metres of the terrace, the chateau park was largely mined away, and demolition was seriously considered. The chateau survived, and since the 1990s it has been presented to visitors deliberately unrestored, repair by repair.

The setting is the point: a Baroque façade on a green mountain slope, looking straight down into one of the largest open pits in the country. Few places in Bohemia put landscape history in front of you so bluntly.