Project Austerlitz

Austerlitz chateau

The incentive for the Baroque conversion of the Kounic family Renaissance manor in Slavkov came from Lev VilИm's only son - Dominik OndЬej from Kounice. The task to build a representative manor for the family in place of the unsuitable Renaissance architecture was given to the Italian architect Domenik Martinelli from Lucca. The design of the new Baroque manor, in the style of so-called Danubian Baroque, was prepared by Martinelli in the 1680s and apart from the manor it also included the modifications and conversion of a larger part of the town with a new vicarage church. The actual building of the manor was designed on a U-shape ground plan.

The construction of the manor commenced in the final years of the 17th century under the supervision of the local master masons and with an occasional inspection by Martinelli. The western wing was built first. The authors of the interior decoration were also Italian artists - frescos were painted by Andrea Lanzani who worked closely with the stucco-worker Santini Bussi. The sculptural elements and statues in the manor as well as in the park were created by Giovanni Giuliani. Dominik OndЬej, the initiator of the Baroque conversion of Slavkov castle, died in 1705.

During the course of the construction of the first stage of the manor, a park was being prepared in the style of French Baroque gardens under the leadership of Dutch experts in front of the western wing. In the middle of the 19th century, the garden was simplified into English style. Reconstruction in the 1970s gave the manor back its former Baroque appearance with pools and fountains and re-positioned stone sculptures.

The publication contains: a baseplate with marked areas to paste the individual parts of the building, historical description (in Czech only), detailed building instruction and photographs of the finished model on the rear of the book.

The building instructions are in Czech, German and English.

Detail

Pictures