The Castle was established as a fortified Romanesque settlement in the 12th century and was soon remodelled into a small Gothic castle. This in turn was rebuilt into an enclosed Renaissance castle in the 16th century. In 1800 the Průhonice estate was purchased by the Count Jan Nepomuk Nostitz-Rhineck who had the castle reconstructed in the Empire style. By marrying his granddaughter Maria Antonia Nostitz-Rhineck in 1885, the Count Ernst Emanuel Silva-Tarouca, descending from a Portuguese aristocratic family, came to Průhonice. Between 1889-94 his architect Stibral performed an extensive reconstruction of the Castle into a family residence in a style of so-called "Czech Neo-Renaissance". The paintings are by Hanuš Schwaiger, and the sculptures by Celda Klouček.
A little Romanesque church of the Virgin Mary s Birth is the oldest memorable object in the Průhonice area. It was consecrated by the Prague Bishop in 1187. Inside there are Gothic wall paintings from the 1st half of the 14th century.
The Průhonice Park was established by the Count Ernst Emanuel Silva-Tarouca in 1885 who continued to work on it until his death in 1936 (even though he sold the entire Průhonice estate to the Czechoslovak State in 1927). With an extraordinary artistic and aesthetic feeling he reshaped the monotonous Central-Bohemian agricultural landscape into a park, which, at present, represents a top achievement of nature-landscape style of European importance. Silva-Tarouca made use of the diversified valley of the Botič stream, its ponds as well as the original plant communities with indigenous tree species, which he enriched by adding exotic tree species. He also added numerous vistas and outlooks with open meadows. On the rocky parts over the Botič he created an extensive alpine garden.
Besides the artistic-historical significance, the Park is also valuable from the dendrological point of view as a collection of native and introduced plants - about 1500 taxa and cultivars of woody plants (1200 broad-leaved and 300 coniferous trees) and 600 taxa and cultivars of perennial herbs.
In the Průhonice Park the best known genus cultivated is Rhododendron - about 8,000 plants of 100 taxa and cultivars.
The present area of the Park is 250 ha, with 40 km of roads, altitude 280-342 m.
As a result of cooperation of Ernst Silva-Tarouca with dendrologist Camillo Schneider, the Dendrological Society was established at Průhonice in 1909, managing Introduction and Experimental Gardens with a rich plant material from all over the world (at present the part of Dendrological garden of the Research Institute of Ornamental Gardening at Průhonice) were built.
In the area of the Botanical Garden of the Institute of Botany at Chotobuz, collections of taxa and cultivars of Rhododendrons (about 200 plants), Iris (about 1700 plants), peonies - Paeonia (about 230 plants), rosa - Rosa (about 800 plants), day-lilies - Hemerocallis (about 250 plants) and water lilies - Nymphaea (about 130 plants) are located. There is also an old collection of fruit tree species. The Institute of Botany is also in charge of one of the largest collections (the third largest in the world) of cones and seeds of coniferous species, of seeds and fruits of broad-leaved trees and of samples of wood and bark.
At present, because the Průhonice area is intensively exploited commercially and surrounded by buildings, the Park provides a refuge for a variety of organisms and is, at the same time, together with the dominant of the Castle, the most significant landscape element southwards of Prague.
The suitable conditions of the Park make the conservation of complete forest and meadow communities possible as well as preservation of considerable genetic diversity of plants, fungi and animals for the next generations.
Park in figures
Latitude: N 49o 58' 43" – 50o 00' 06"
Longitude: E 14o 32' 16" – 14o 34' 26"
Altitude: 281 - 342 m
Mean annual precipitation: 610 mm (1929 - 1958)
Mean annual temperature: 8,6 oC (1929 - 1958)
Area: 244 hektarů
Species and cultivars: 1380 (269 jehličnanů, 984 širolistých dřevin 127 trvalek)
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