Hospitál Kuks, Kuks

The Kuks Hospital is a former institution for military veterans in Kuks in the Trutnov district, operated between 1744 and 1938 by the Order of the Merciful Brothers. It was founded on the initiative of Count František Antonín Špork opposite his summer residence with a spa and was intended for retired soldiers mainly from the Choustník Hradiště estate. It was the most generous institute of its kind in late Baroque Bohemia. The sculptural decoration from the workshop of Matthias Bernard Braun added extraordinary significance to the whole complex. Today the hospital is owned by the state and is open to the public. The exhibitions present the founders of Kuks, local Baroque art and the history of pharmacy. Since 1995 the site has been protected as a national cultural monument of the Czech Republic.

The hospital with the Church of the Holy Trinity was built gradually between 1707 and 1748, in the initial phase according to the project of the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi. On the terrace in front of the church are copies of the statues of the Virtues and Vices by Matthias Bernard Braun. During the extensive restoration of the monument between 2013 and 2015, the murals in the main corridor were uncovered and restored with the motif of the monumental cycle Dance of Death.

The Kuks Hospitál is the official seat of the Spork Hunting Order of St. Hubert, which annually organizes the largest hunting festival in the Czech Republic - the St. Hubert Festival.