Ploskovice

A baroque summer chateau built 1716–1723 for Grand Duchess Anna Maria Franziska of Tuscany, later the retirement seat of abdicated emperor Ferdinand V — state-owned, with a free landscape park.

Ploskovice is the polished surprise of the orchard country east of Litoměřice: a baroque summer palace built 1716–1723 for Anna Maria Franziska, Grand Duchess of Tuscany — who famously burned the building accounts, so even the architect’s name is lost. In the 1850s it became the retirement residence of Ferdinand V, the abdicated “good-hearted” emperor; the chateau was raised a storey for him and redecorated by Josef Navrátil, whose interiors are the core of today’s guided tours.

For walkers the chateau park is the useful part: freely accessible, with grottoes and fountains under the terrace, and the village around it has a pub. The green-marked trail through it connects the Litoměřice orchards with the hills towards Třebušín and Kalich.