People and castle
Any castle is … an "artificial cave" for more or less civilized people, since the uncivilized lived in natural caves. But any house is, first of all, people living in it. These are their characters, their actions, their history. For example, I am always struck by the balconies in houses in the same Czech Republic, as well as in Poland, Spain, the south of France and even in the same Cyprus and here. We have a balcony in 80% of cases, a warehouse of old junk, which for some reason needs to be saved. There is a place where flowers are planted in boxes and where, in the "worst case", there is a light table on openwork legs and the same two chairs. Or a fence near a private residential building. There is a fence! We again have a warehouse of old, often already rotten boards, some boxes and God knows what else. Why is this and why? Is it really “as expensive as a memory” and is laid on the principle “in the household and the rope will do”? But what can this "rotten stuff" and "curvature" be good for? However, we must pay tribute to our balcony owners. Recently, we have more and more empty balconies, as well as those on which flowers grow. Probably, this is from the growing general impoverishment …
However, this is nothing more than a "reflection at the front entrance", inspired by what he saw. Perhaps more important, it seems to me, it is necessary to emphasize in any business the role of His Majesty Chance. Examples of the role played by chance in our life "a million and a small cart", and, by the way, the same castle Hluboka nad Vltavou is another confirmation of this. After all, he might not have gone to the Schwarzenberg family. Because the son of Prince Adam Schwarzenberg, who bought him from the descendants of Don Marradas in 1661, was born the second and, according to the family tradition of chivalric times, had to take the clergy. Moreover, he studied at the Royal Academy in Paris, where he communicated with Cardinal de Richelieu himself and was even admitted to the Order of the Johannites at his personal request in 1635. And then his elder brother suddenly dies, and Jan-Adolf I refuses the dignity prepared for him and goes to serve at the court of the emperor. In 1650 he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece, in 1670 he became an imperial count, the next year he was given the privilege of minting his own coin and even the right to produce persons of low origin into the rank of nobility. Differing also with economic abilities, he looked after the Gluboka castle and managed to buy it quite cheaply, but if all this had not happened, his older brother might not have bought it and today he would belong to a different family, and he could have looked completely different!
There are always a lot of people at the castle. Even in the early morning.
On the other hand, Fate is not merciful to the noble, just as it is to the last of the poor. This is also seen in the example of the Schwarzenberg family. For example, when one of the representatives of this family, Adam-Franz, in 1732 accompanied Emperor Charles VI during his travels across Bohemia, one of the hunts became fatal for him. He was killed by an unsuccessful shot, and his wife, Princess Eleanor-Amalia, who amazed the entire Viennese court with her beauty, then locked herself in her estate, concentrating all her attention on raising her son.
The marriage of Prince Josef Schwarzenberg with the Belgian princess Paulina was also quite happy. After the wedding in 1794 and until 1810, she bore him nine children (and she gave birth ten times, one child died during childbirth!) And was very proud of their pregnancies, followed the field work, ran the housekeeping, but at the same time found time to draw and even published two notebooks of her etchings with views of Czech landscapes in 1806-1809.
Reconstruction of the exterior of the Hluboka castle in the Baroque style.
And when, on July 1, 1810, Princess Paulina with her husband and two daughters attended a ball at the Austrian embassy in Paris on the occasion of the marriage of the Emperor Napoleon to Archduchess Marie Louise of Habsburg in a wooden pavilion specially built for him, covered with beautiful draperies, a fire broke out from a falling candle …
View of the castle before its reconstruction. Watercolor by J. Gerstmeier, 1832.
Princess Paulina and her daughter Eleanor, along with the imperial couple, were among the first to be taken outside. But not seeing her second daughter, she rushed after her into the burning hall … They found her only the next day and identified only by her jewelry. Moreover, her second daughter escaped, although she received severe burns on her back. Upon examination of the body, it turned out that the princess was in her second month of pregnancy, so they correctly say that "the rich also cry."
But this is how it appears already rebuilt and in the schedule.
But the future builder of the Gluboka castle, Jan-Adolph II, when he traveled to England on behalf of the emperor, was engaged not only in dancing at balls and admiring English castles, but also studied the British method of processing iron, visited the steel plant in Stonebridge, was interested in new steam and textile machines. Upon his return, he not only began to rebuild his castle, but also on his estate in Turrach, according to an English project, he built … a blast furnace, which in 1841 began to produce iron and became four times more than the old one.
Karl Philip Schwarzenberg, field marshal, commander of the allied forces in the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig.
He also began to plant rapeseed and sugar beets on his lands, which made it possible to found the first princely sugar factory in 1852. He also ordered to bring from England the first machines for land reclamation, and again, according to the English model, he improved dairy production. Schwarzenberg cheeses began to win at agricultural exhibitions, breweries brewed excellent beer, a new chemical laboratory in Lovosice performed soil and product analyzes, which further helped to increase their quality, popularity and … income. The attitude towards forestry and pond management was radically changed. So, in the end, nothing remained of the old feudal economy on the Schwarzenbenrg estate.
And this is the same unfortunate burned-out Paulina, painted by the artist Jan Lampi, and this portrait was painted after her death, which is hinted at by the drawing accessories scattered at her feet and the fallen bust.
Well, his wife, Eleanor, a princess from Liechtenstein (1812 - 1873), whom he married in 1830 in Vienna, a blonde with transparent delicate skin, was a very gifted and charming creature. For more than 20 years after that, she set the tone at court, and at balls, and at all celebrations, she was always in the center of attention of Viennese society. Like many members of the nobility of that time, she painted beautifully. Her teacher was the Schwarzenberg court painter Ferdinand Runk. The princess not only painted watercolors, she also mastered the technique of etching and began to depict her landscapes on plates, and then she herself painted them. When the reconstruction of the castle began, she delved into literally all of its details: what kind of cladding to put on the walls, what pattern to choose for laying parquet, gave instructions on altering antique furniture, interior design, even marking park alleys - and that was her merit. But was she happily married?
Portrait of Eleanor Schwarzenberg. Artist Joseph Krihuber. Watercolor. 1842 year.
Most likely … not very much. She gave birth to her husband three children, and her eldest son Walter for some reason was brought up separately from his mother and did not even live to be two years old: in some strange way he fell out of his baby carriage and so unsuccessfully that … crashed to death. It is not clear only why he is absent from the Schwarzenberg family tree. Why was such disfavor shown to the unfortunate baby? Most likely it was her illegitimate child, and how this could happen to her, we will never know. However, as we used to say in Russia - "A stupid thing is not tricky" …
Another portrait of Princess Eleanor by the artist Joseph Krihuber.
Everyone, however, notes that the princess was a strong, decisive and … resourceful woman, and few men like these next to them. For example, once the famous Viennese portraitist Hans Makar, who painted her portrait right in the castle, was so carried away by the work (or the princess) that he forgot about the audience he had been appointed to with the emperor and missed the regular train to Vienna. But the princess used the telegraph available in the house and ordered a special train for him, which brought the artist to Vienna on time. Naturally, this required money, and not small, and it is unlikely that the princess's husband reacted to this waste with enthusiasm. After all, he was not interested in either the "novelties from Paris" that Eleanor subscribed to, or the collection of paintings and tapestries. Therefore, according to the memories that have come down to us, there were often quarrels in the house, and they usually happened every time she wanted to buy or bought some new novelty. Well, she also died not "just like that", but after a serious illness in 1873, never seeing the end of the reconstruction of her beloved castle. Jan Adolf II survived her for 15 years, saw the results of his and her labors and died quietly here. True, his son got not only the castle and the businesses that flourished with it, but also huge debts.
It is known that learning is light, and not learning is darkness. And as for the children of the owners of the castle, they understood this very well and tried to give their children a very good education. For example, in the castle next to the children's rooms, in addition to the nanny's room, there was also a study room, where a specially hired teacher was engaged in teaching children. In particular, Emerich-Thomas Gogler, who spoke German, studied with little Jan-Adolf II, who aroused in the boy an interest in both agriculture and forestry. And after all, he carried it through his entire adult life, he did not become a rake, nor a womanizer, nor a mot. No wonder, after all, when he traveled around England, he wrote down in his diary information about the construction of kennels, the size of parks, the age of trees and new agricultural machines. His son Adolf-Josef followed his father's path and became, one might say, a hereditary entrepreneur. He built a new Schwarzenberg brewery and modernized the old distillery. He also collected natural formations and minerals, and as an amateur archaeologist conducted archaeological excavations, studying the prehistoric monuments of the Czech Republic.
And another portrait of Eleanor from Hluboka Castle by the artist Schrotsberg.
However, it was not only the gentlemen themselves who studied. In the 19th century, the support of public education became a tradition of the Schwarzenberg family. The family participated in the creation of the National Museum, supported art workers, various schools, and the ladies, moreover, with charity. Representatives of culture were invited to the castle, concerts were held, and schools and homes for orphans were taken under guardianship. Sometimes this kind of action looked pretty funny. For example, in 1931 Princess Hilda became the "godmother" of a new fire hydrant, which the princely married couple bought for a team of volunteer firefighters in Gordejovice. In winter, from December to Easter, a nutritious soup was cooked for schoolchildren from poor families at the expense of the family. In total for the period 1938-1939. 9087 servings were given to children and 280 to adults.
The wife of Princess Eleanor Jan-Adolph II in the ceremonial dress of the Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece by the artist Franz Schrozberg. In the open window on the right, the artist depicted the castle, completed by rebuilding, and the flag flying over its main tower - a sign that the sovereign prince is in the castle.
Well, the last of the owners of the castle, Dr. Adolph and his wife Hilda, were engaged in the fact that they went on hunting and research expeditions to Africa. In 1931, they brought from Congo a large collection of beetles, butterflies and other insects, which they donated to the National Museum in Prague. In 1933, they bought a 1,500-hectare plot of land near Nairobi, where they spent most of the winter in the following years. Shortly before the start of World War II, they left the country and never returned to it, and they died in a foreign land.
As you can see, great wealth of happiness does not yet guarantee, but it can help both your people and your country. It is probably not worth giving them the last shirt, no one will appreciate it anyway, but to support talented youth, to patronize science and arts, and the same African beetles, to collect and send them in collections to museums of their native country, the task is probably quite wealthy people feasible.
