Chateau Žleby

Žleby is a chateau in the village of the same name approximately seven kilometres east of Čáslav. It stands on a promontory surrounded by the meander of the Doubrava River in the central part of the village. The chateau has been protected as a national cultural monument since 2002. It is managed by the National Heritage Institute. It is open to the public during visiting hours.

The original Gothic castle was founded in the thirteenth century by the Lichtenburgs. The first indirect mention of it dates back to 1289, when it belonged to Henry of Lichtenburg, some of whose descendants came to be called the Žlebskis of Lichtenburg. In 1356 Žleby was bought by Charles IV and since then the castle has been frequently built over. During the Hussite wars, the Hussites conquered the castle twice. By the second half of the sixteenth century, a number of owners had changed possession of the castle until Elisabeth of Nestajov acquired Žleby as hereditary property.

At the end of the sixteenth century the late Gothic castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance chateau. Its owners included the Černíns of Chudenice, the Trčks of Lípa, the Kaisersteins and finally the Auerspergs, who carried out a Baroque reconstruction after the mid-eighteenth century. The preserved appearance of the chateau is the result of a romantic reconstruction in the Neo-Gothic style carried out in the second half of the nineteenth century by the Auerspergs, who owned the chateau until the end of the Second World War.