Česky
After the St Maurus reliquary, that is a national cultural monument and one of the greatest treasures of the Czech Republic, the Bečov castle takes pride in unique collection of 136 bottles of wine, cognac and Champagne that mostly originate from the 1890s. The value of old bottles that were uncovered together with the medieval St Maurus reliquary in the Bečov nad Teplou castle in 1985 has been put at 20 million Kč. Many bottles in collection have preserved labels therefore, it can be determined not only the origin but also the concrete wine grower who produced the wine and the dealer who sold it. Each bottle has a value of minimum 200,000 Kč and it is probably the most valuable find of wine in the Czech Republic. The treasure is kept in a special depository at the Bečov castle.
The collection used to be possessed by the Beaufort-Spontin family, which collaborated with the
Nazis during World War II and had to leave Czechoslovakia after the war. On departure, the
Beaufort-Spontins had the reliquary and the bottles cached below the floor of the castle chapel.
The story of the discovery of the St Maurus reliquary and the wine started in June 1984. A
U.S. businessman named Danny Douglas called on the Czechoslovak consulate in Vienna and wanted to
buy an unspecified relic stashed in the Czechoslovak, without disclosing what or where it was.
Investigators eventually figured out that the unspecified item was in Bečov Castle. On Nov. 5 1985,
they succeeded in finding the shrine of St Maurus under the boarded floor of the Gothic castle´s
Chapel of the Virgin Mary. The restoration work began in 1991, after lengthy proceedings concerning
the property rights related to the shrine.
31 Dec 2014