The Bellarie Summer House in Český Krumlov renovated to its former glory

The Bellarie Summer House, a Rococo jewel in Český Krumlov reopened to the public in October after undergoing extensive renovation. The palace boasts the best-preserved murals from the Rococo period in the whole of Czechia.

The Bellarie Summer House in Český Krumlov|Photo: Petr Kubát, Czech Radio

The Rococo garden mansion, the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic, has a lot to offer visitors.

The walls of the halls on both upper floors are covered with 18th century murals by František Jakub Prokyš. The dining table is laid in the style of the time, as if waiting for its inhabitants to come down to dine.

On the underground floor of Bellarie, visitors can admire a Baroque kitchen with 18th-century lifts. The larger lift allowed food to be transported from the kitchen through three floors to the Upper Hall, while the smaller one, known as the 'magic table,' lifted food to the dining room.

There is also an artificial cave, the so-called grotto. The grotto with its artistic decoration suggestive of stalactites, nature, and sculptures, connected by a water feature, created a cool environment that nicely contrasted with the heat of a summer day. In addition to its stucco decoration, the walls of the cave are covered with fragments of mirrors, glass and hundreds of shells.

Detail of a fresco from the Bellarie Summer Palace in Český Krumlov|Photo: Národní památkový ústav

During the renovation work conservationists had to have around 800 copies of these shells made using a 3D printer. So now in the grotto there are partly the original shells, partly porcelain replicas and then the 3D scans.

The renovation of the Bellarie Summer House is one of the most challenging projects of the National Heritage Institute in the last decade. It took four years and cost CZK 60 million.