Concept: Colorful reception
Colours: Red with touch of white
Flowers by own florist from India
Photos by Tomas Dittrich
Zofin palace VIII.
Ploskovice chateau
Facts:
• type of ceremony – civil, church (protestant), symbolic
• available dates and time – on request
• ceremonies can take place in the French garden or inside at one of the amazing halls
• capacity of the hall is up to 80, approx
• length of the ceremony is around 25 min
• civil ceremony is in Czech, translated into English (or any other language), church or symbolic ceremony in any language
About:
Anna Maria Franziska of the Palatinate (née Saxe-Lauenburg, 1672–1741) had this Baroque country house built prior to 1720; it was finished in 1725. Apart from the main hall, the most significant room is the sala terrena underneath. The grottoes connecting to the garden on the ground floor have fountains with sculptural decoration in the shape of Hercules, water deities, sea monsters and angels which are quite remarkable. The Duchess, who after the death of her first husband married the Tuscan Grand Duke, Gian Gastone III, the last male descendent of the Medici family, ran a costly court at Ploskovice. In the 1730s the French terrace garden was remodelled. A gloriette, shown in its 19th century incarnation, serves as a bellevue. In 1764 the house was altered in Rococo style and in 1773 further building alterations were made to the house and greenhouse in the garden. The composition of the garden was simplified from 1816. During a Neo-Baroque reconstruction from 1850–3 for the abdicated ruler Emperor Ferdinand V the upper floor was raised, and pavilions appeared at the end of the Baroque arcade corridors, as well as a new northern portico. The garden was changed into a landscape park and servants quarters grew up after 1816 on the site of a destroyed earlier house.
Church of Our Lady
Facts:
• wedding ceremonies lasts around 30 min without holy mass or around 60 min with holy mass
• ceremonies are in English
• at least one of you must be baptised Roman-catholic
• available dates – any day, latest at 4.00 p.m.
• capacity of approx. 150 people
About:
The Church of Mother of God before Týn (in Czech Kostel Matky Bozi pred Tynem, also Tynsky chram), often translated as Church of Our Lady before Tyn, is a dominant feature of the Old Town of Prague, and has been the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century. The church’s towers are 80 m high and topped by four small spires.
In the 11th century, this area was occupied by a Romanesque church, which was built there for foreign merchants coming to the nearby Tyn Courtyard. Later it was replaced by an early Gothic Church of Our Lady before Týn in 1256. The church was controlled by Hussites for two centuries. The roof was completed in the 1450s, while the gable and northern tower were completed shortly thereafter during the reign of George of Podebrady.
After the lost Battle of White Mountian (1620) began the era of harsh recatholicisation. In 1679 the church was struck by lightning, and the subsequent fire heavily damaged the old vault, which was later replaced by a lower baroque vault.
Renovation works carried out in 1876–1895 were later reversed during extensive exterior renovation works in the years 1973–1995.
The early baroque altarpiece has paintings by Karel Skreta from around 1649. The oldest pipe organ in Prague stands inside this church. The organ was built in 1673 by Heinrich Mundt and is one of the most representative 17th-century organs in Europe.
St. Cyrillus and Methodius
Facts:
• type of ceremony – orthodox
• available dates and times – anytime, 10.00 a.m. – 3.00 p.m.
• capacity of the church is approx. 60 people
• length of the ceremony is around 30 min
• wedding ceremony can be in English or Russian
About:
An orthodox Church of St. Cyrillus and Methodius is well known through its crypt which in 1942 was the last hiding site of seven Czechoslovak paratroopers (members of the British Commandos) sent from England to take part in the underground resistance movement against the Nazi rule installed after the occupation of the Czech lands by the German armed forces in 1939. Their hiding followed the assassination of the top Nazi whose name was Reinhardt Heydrich (the Nazi Protector of the Czech lands and their real ruler). The assassination carried out by two of the hiding paratroopers made the Nazis furious and led to their brutal revenge including the levelling to the ground of Lidice, the village near Prague. As for the inhabitants of the village: all men (173 of them) were shot dead, women sent to a concentration camp and the majority of children gassed (a few of them given to German families for “re-education”). As a pretext for this atrocity it was claimed by the Nazis that the village co-operated with the assassins. This was not true, no evidence of this co-operation ever existed, the village was selected as a target of the Nazi revenge just at random.
The hiding place of the paratroopers was at last betrayed; one morning the church was besieged by the Nazi troops and after a fight lasting the whole morning the paratroopers ran out of ammunition and all seven committed suicide.
Valtice
About
Valtice is name of a small town and amazing chateau in Moravia, approx. 2,5 hours from Prague. It belongs to the Lednice-Valtice area, complex of beautiful nature, historical buildings and of course wine everywhere. Valtice Chateau was the family seat of the Lords of Liechtenstein, Lednice Chateau was their summer residence, which replaced an earlier fort in the early 17th century.
Wedding ceremony and reception
There are many options where to hold ceremony and reception:
Chateau Valtice
– wedding ceremony can be hold in rich decorated chateau chapel, beautiful park or one of the chateau hall
– chapel has separate entrance from the ground floor of the main building
– wedding reception can be in representative Dancing hall, largest space of the chateau
– wine tasting of more then 100 samples can be arranged in Salon Vin (Wine saloon), located in the chateau
Rendez-Vous
– hunting lodge, located 3 km from Valtice, was built around the two chateaux.It is a complex of hunting lodges, viewing platforms, farm buildings abd other landscape elements built on swamp land, dried out artificially
– beautiful hall on the top floor can be rented for both ceremony or reception
Colonnade Reisten (Rajstna)
– the colonnade, built on Homole hill called Reisten or Rajstna, with Corinthian columns, built to a rectangular plan, resembles a triumphal arch due to an attic elevated in the middle part
– art form of the colonnade was probably inspired by a gloriette in the Schonbrunn palace garden in Vienna
– visitors can enjoy extraordinary view from the viewing terrace – view over the territory of three countries – neighbouring with Lower Austria where the colonnade was placed at the time of its creation, from Moravia we can see the town of Mikulov with a castle and Saint Hill, the largest Moravian pond called Nesyt as well as the Pálava Mountains with the highest peak Devin (550 m), Devicy Castle ruins, and a minaret in Lednice Castle Park. From the then Hungaria (today in Slovakia) the Little Carpathians can be seen, while the town of Valtice and Falkenstein Castle ruins on the horizon once belonged to Lower Austria.
Lodging
Accommodation can be arranged in many intimate pensions or hotels.
