The castle is a former hunting lodge (17th century) with a wonderful vault fresco of the Virgin Mary Coronation of Felix Thomas Anton Scheffler (1728) which is located in the chapel. The baroque castle is a three-storey three-winged building with an elevation of the central building from the 17th century and has been a listed building since May 3, 1958
On the grounds of the castle was originally a fortress, mentioned around the year 1353. Originally, the castle square plan with an enclosed courtyard and arcades. The eastern side of the court had been badly damaged in previous times by fire and was therefore demolished. In the 19th century it was rebuilt classically. The castle was built by Max Freiherr von Deblin 1726 and was completed by his son Franz Anton in 1733.
The castle chapel was built during the construction work and is decorated on the ceiling and walls with rich Bandlwerkstuck (around 1728). The vault fresco shows the coronation of the virgin Mary, in the corners the four evangelists by Felix Thomas Anton Scheffler 1728 were represented. A 1673 consecrated reliquary is also located in the chapel.
In 1702, the estate was bought by Max Franz von Deblin, who began in 1726 to rebuild the castle in its present form. In 1784 Josef Franz Graf von Deblin was murdered. On January 1, 1842, the castle was handed over to Marquis Alphonse Pallavicini senior, in the course of recognition of the Bohemian Inkulats he bought the castle Staré Hobzí on December 29, 1841 from Countess Therese Trautmannsdorf. she had acquired the castle and other properties on December 27, 1823. (Inkolat is a term from the rights of the nobility. It was obtained by either birth or formal admission into the societies of knights and landed gentry in the old Austrian and Czech lands)
During summer the Pallavicini family stayed mostly in their castle in Jemnice, during winter they stayed at their palace in Vienna. The castle in Staré Hobzí was set up to accommodate summer guests. In 1910 there were 30 apartments with one to three rooms in the building.
The Pallavicini family owned the castle until 1927. The plots were expropriated in the course of land reform in 1924. Alexander Margrave Pallavicini the last owner was allowed to keep the castle. With a purchase agreement dated 13th of Dec. 1927 the castle passed into the hands of eight Alt-Harter citizens, later it was nationalized.
In 1927 there was a Czech kindergarten and a nursing home located in the castle. In 1931, the mayor's office and apartment were also located in the castle. During the Second World War, the castle served the needs of the German Reich, on the first floor were the municipal office, the registry office, the gendarmerie, the local party group and later the chemistry laboratory of the Vienna Drägerwerke.
On May 12, 1945, Hungarian and German prisoners of war arrived with the Red Army and were kept imprisoned on a nearby three-square-kilometer field. After the outbreak of the typhus epidemic and other illnesses, the Red Army set up a prison hospital in the castle building. In the castle park, where they were guarded by the Russians, 4000 refugees from Silesia had to spend weeks there in the open air.
After this bad time, the castle was used as a school. In 1989, the castle was sold to several private owners, who left this jewel to its fate.
In 2014, the baroque castle got a new owner, who revitalized the castle in the following years in accordance with the regulations of monument protection.
The castle
then and now
