After a morning on Castle Hill in Prague, we rode a bus to the Sychrov Castle. A castle and fort were situated here as far back as the 15th century. A smaller baroque castle was built by a knighted French family in the late 17th century. The present structure, more of a manor house than a castle, was built in the neo-gothic style from 1847 to 1862 and somewhat renovated in the 1920's. After the end of World War II the castle was confiscated and became state property because the owners were suspected of collaboration with the Nazis.

The front entrance.

The courtyard.

The rear of the castle, where the carriages would arrive.

    
One of the outbuildings was used to train falcons.

To the rear was a huge lawn and many trees.

Next we were invited into the chapel for a short organ concert. We heard two Dvorak pieces, including the Largo from the New World Symphony Dvorak had played this organ. The organist also played two familiar Bach pieces and the Trumpet Voluntary.

I was amazed to see the organ with only one rank and 8 stops. The organist showed amazing skill to produce such good music on this small instrument.

    
We were then given a tour of the apartments, beginning with this statue of Duke Rohan, one of the original owners during the 19th century reconstruction. An interesting fact was that most of the wooden carving, including the balustrade behind the statue, had been carved by one man. The photo at the right shows the intricacy of this carving.

The study with an old microscope on the desk.

One of the bedrooms.

A small section of the library.

We ended our visit here with dinner in the Baroque Salon.

After a long day of sightseeing, we returned to the hotel to rest up for our last day of sightseeing in Prague.