It was always a bit cold at the castle in Světlá nad Sázavou. A total of 80 rooms could not be heated, so even rich factory owner Richard Morawetz lived in only half of them with his family in the 1920s. Their discomfort in the style of the First Republic is now brought closer to the castle by the new owners, the Marian couple, who took over the estate from the Degerme family last year.
Jiří and Marta Mariano bought the castle last autumn from a family of Ukrainian origin, which had complained about the low number of visitors in recent years. They wanted to buy the mansion for retirement, they were enchanted already during the fifteen-minute tour,
A couple of former hoteliers tried to give the castle a new face during the winter. He had something to build on, the Degerme family had already built an exhibition of glass and historical clocks at the castle, but the Marians improved the interiors and a cafe with a restaurant. They want to organize cultural events in the courtyard and indoors, for example a glass day in early June.
New exhibits then show how life was in the residence during the first republic. At that time, the castle was inhabited by the family of Richard Morawetz, who fled the Nazis before the Second World War, first to Vienna and later to Canada. The second-born son Oskar is one of the most played classical music composers in Canada today, but in the Czech Republic he seems to have been forgotten.
Take a tour of the interiors of the First Republic with us.
