Jeřice - Chateau

The Baroque Chateau Jeřice is located in the village of the same name, 4 km southeast of Hořice. It has been listed as a cultural monument since 1989. The first written mention of the village of Jeřice is from 1379. At that time the Jeřice fortified manor house with part of the village belonged to Mrzák and Zdeněk of Jeřice. Its remains can be found on the ground floor of today‘s chateau.

In the 15th and 16th centuries the estate changed hands many times. In 1665 the Jeřice estate was acquired by Jan and Marie Magdalena Hilprandt, who rebuilt the old manor house into a four-winged, one-storey Baroque chateau with an enclosed arcaded courtyard and a hexagonal tower in the northeast corner.

In 1748 Jan Daniel of Gastheim with his wife Marie Terezie of Paar bought the chateau and after their death their nephew Jan Václav Paar inherited the estate. He was probably responsible for the late Baroque alterations completed sometime between 1760–1780 that gave the chateau its present appearance. Baron Gagern became the next owner of Jeřice in 1852, however, he sold the Jeřice chateau to the factory owner Josef Haney from Rokytnice in 1867. Under his ownership an expensive pseudo-Renaissance reconstruction took place. The landowner Josef Voženílek from Předměřice nad Labem then became the last pre-Communist owner in 1924. After 1945 the chateau housed an agricultural school and since 1967 the Jičín district archives.

At present, the chateau with the chateau park and the adjacent agricultural farm is owned by Jaroslav Horák from Černilov, the grandson of Josef Voženílek. The chateau stands in the middle of a park, which is connected to the adjacent farm buildings. Currently the chateau is inaccessible to the public.