Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(4):331-339 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.4.06

Countess Wilhelmine Larisch-Mönnich, née Schaffgotsch, and the collections of Nový zámek in Jevišovice located in the castle exhibition spaces of the Vysočina Region

Lucie Bláhová, Jana Petrová

NPÚ, ÚPS v Českých Budějovicích

Countess Wilhelmina Schaffgotsch was born into a family of rich coal magnates and industrialists. Her marriage with Johann Larisch of Mönnich confirmed her position in the then-emerging financial and industrial bourgeoisie. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the aristocracy, having enjoyed the highest position of social status for centuries, was forced to seek a new place among the social elite. Both the Schaffgotsch and Larisch families from Mönnich joined the new social stratum and utilized their enormous financial resources to concentrate more power into their hands than the nobility had possessed in the past. The Larisch family of Mönnich founded coal mining in Karviná, and as one of the largest coal magnates and owners of coalfields in Silesia they possessed a massive source of wealth. In 1939, Wilhelmine's husband Count Johann Larisch of Mönnich was commissioned by his father to administer the family property and to manage all the industrial and agricultural businesses. The marriage and early career of the heads of the Larisch enterprises took place during the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German Empire. Nevertheless, the young couple started to build their family empire. In 1939, the family extended its estates to include lands in Jevišovice in the Znojmo area. The new Jevišovice castle had originally been built by the Ugart family in Baroque style on the site of a summer hunting lodge. In the later part of the 19th century, the castle was rebuilt in Windsor Neo-Gothic style by Karl Lovatelli. In 1916, the estate was purchased by the Viennese industrialist Wilhelm, Knight Offenheim of Ponteuxin, who modernized the castle. After his death in 1932, his siblings Angela and Ernst inherited the castle. Unlike their brother, they were not interested in managing the remote Jevišovice estates, and the castle was only sporadically used as a summer residence. In 1937, the castle was severely damaged by a fire caused by the carelessness of workers repairing the central heating. The Offenheims decided to sell the castle, and its new Larisch owners from Mönnich set out to repair the burnt-out castle and furnish its interiors. The interiors of the Nový zámek in Jevišovice were lavishly decorated as a representative family residence in South Moravia, from where new social and business contacts could be established. The collection of Renaissance canvases, tapestries, and oriental carpets inside the castle are especially valuable and attest the taste and the artistic and historical knowledge of the owner. Wilhelmine's influence on the furnishing of the castle, however, was apparently only an advisory one as the wife of the estate administrator. The castle was lived in until at least 1942 by Eduard Larisch from Mönnich, the elder brother of Count Johann. The marriage of Wilhelmine and Johann Larisch of Mönnich terminated shortly after the end of the Second World War with the tragic death of the Countess in a car accident at Brtnice. At the time, Count Larisch of Mönnich lived in Austria, where he fled before the arrival of the Soviet Army in May 1945. The castle was confiscated with all the rest of Larisch's property. The movable property that remained in the Jevišovice Castle was sorted according to its cultural-historical value and was divided among the castles in Náměšť nad Oslavou, Milotice, Vranov nad Dyjí, and Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou based on the protocol of the National Cultural Commission for the Management of Cultural Property. Textiles and fashion accessories were sent to the Museum of Social Culture in Jemniště, part of the graphic collection was sent to the Museum of the City of Prague, a set of graphic sheets with motives of game and hunting were sent to the Czech Museum of Agriculture, graphics with horse motifs were sent to the State Hippological Museum in Slatiňany, and graphics with military themes were sent to the Military Historical Museum. A knowledge and understanding of the fates of this valuable Jevišovice mobiliary is just as important as their preservation in these institutions, and together they form a part of our national history.

Keywords: Countess Wilhelmine Larisch-Mönnich, Nový zámek in Jevišovice, Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou castle, Náměšť nad Oslavou castle, castle collections, collections

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation