The village of Cimelice was under royal administration until
the middle of the 15th century. It had the same legal rights as
the nearby Orlik Castle. The first documentation for the village
dates from 1445, when Cimelice was owned by Markvart and Jan,
members of the Jezovec family from Rakovice. The fortress of
Cimelice was also first documented in 1445, when Peter of
Cimelice owned it.
The Royal Procurator, Jan Tluksa of Vrabi, acquired Cimelice in
1460. Vladislav II Jagellon, King of Bohemia, granted him the
right to gather wood from the forests of Pisek and to hunt deer,
boar and bear. He was also given the right to build a gallows and
to perform executions.
The Deym family from Stritez acquired Cimelice, including some
neighbouring villages, in 1532. The renaissance church in
Cimelice was built next to the old gothic chapel in the second
half of the 16th century. A system of fishponds was built also
during this period. The fortress was rebuilt in the renaissance
style in 1597. Records show that it was made of stone, with a
yard and a brewery.
The Count of Althan received Cimelice through seizure of the
property shortly after it was granted the status of town in 1629.
It was then bought in the same year by Lady Eva Plot, a sister of
Vilem Deym. The Margrave of Bissingen's family bought Cimelice
from the Plot family in 1686. They kept the property until the
family line died out in 1771. The estate also comprised an eight-room
stone fortress with a small circular tower in one corner, a
brickyard, a brewery, a manorial yard, a sheepfold, a mill near
Cimelice, several ponds and the church of St Alzbeta (Elizabeth).
With its acquisition by the Bissingen family, an important period
of economic prosperity started. Karel Bohuslav Bissingen built
the Listany farm with a sheepfold. Another farm, Bissingenhof,
was founded close to the Stejskal pond, which was later divided
into two ponds by a low dyke.
The original Cimelice fortress was rebuilt into a granary in 1730.
The structure closes the building complex at north edge of the
castle courtyard. The three-storey building with small windows is
covered by a saddle roof. A renovated painting of a sundial
covers a part of the gable wall.
Karel Bohuslav Bissingen was designated as the Prachen regional
supervisor in 1725. He held the office until 1742. The Cimelice
domain was badly affected by the Franco-Austrian War during the
period 1741 to 1743. By October 1744, a vast army encampment
spread between Mirotice and Cimelice. A local monument, Vintir,
was probably built at this time. It is a long, three-sided
pyramid erected on three granite spheres placed on a tall granite
pedestal. The Cimelice painter, Josef Jelinek, painted Czech saints on
the three sides of the pyramid at the beginning of the 20th
century. Unfortunately the paintings are no longer visible now.
After the death of the vigorous Karel Bohuslav Bissingen, the
Cimelice domain was administered by his son Karel Bohumir (Gotfried),
who founded some new farms. After his death, his wife Apolonie of
Wratislav, who was of Mitrovic ancestry, inherited the property.
In this way, the domain passed to the Wratislav family in 1782.
Josef Wratislav of Mitrovic was a supplier to the Imperial army
during the Napoleonic wars. It was a time of economic prosperity
that resulted in new buildings, which enriched the architectural
character of Cimelice in the empire style. A small empire-style
castle was built at the northeastern edge of the Cimelice yard
during the period 1798 to 1817. The Karlov Manor was finished
after 1800, with symmetrical buildings along the axis of forest
road close to the small Karlov castle.
During the period 1800 to 1848, 29 new houses were constructed,
including several small cottages in Cimelice. A new smithy and an
inn (today the Na Knizeci restaurant) were built on the square.
Josefina Wratislav, who married Prince Karel Schwarzenberg,
inherited Cimelice in 1840 and Cimelice became a part of the
Schwarzenberg property. In 1846, the Schwarzenbergs also gained
the Varvazov region, which was connected to Orlik domain. Alleys
of oak, chestnut, elm and linden trees were planted, forming with
ponds, shrubby areas and areas for pheasant, the new face of the
country - adapted for hunting - in the east of the Cimelice
region and the area of Vrabsko. The Schwarzenbergs (the Orlik
family branch) were owners until 1949, when the property was
nationalized and Cimelice castle plundered by the communists. It
was returned to the family heir, Prince Karel Schwarzenberg, in
1994.
Cimelice also played its part in the end of World War II, with
the capitulation of Schörner's Nazi army after the clash at
Slivice being ratified in the nearby mill house, U Diku, on May
11, 1945. The German commander Pückler committed suicide
afterwards.
The castle of Cimelice is the only important
palace in the baroque style in the Pisek region. Count Karel
Bohuslav (Amadeus) Bissingen had the castle built by the master
builder, A. Canevall, close to the old fortress, which used to be
enclosed by a water-filled moat. The remains of the fortress are
part of the present-day granary.
The castle is a two-storey building. Its middle part, which
extends towards the rear, rises one floor above the two side
wings. After a fire in 1767, two small towers were erected on the
castle wings. Valuable furniture, an altar and sculptures from
the castle chapel of St Jan Evangelista (John Baptist), paintings
and other pieces of art had disappeared before a film school was
established in the castle in 1952: Film making was taught in the
castle until 1982. Between 1999 and 2001, Cimelice castle was one
of the residential centres for the Centre for Contemporary Arts.
A park, decorated with many statues and divided into squares by
hedges and paths, was established with the construction of the
castle. A grassy area in the front of the garden arched in
direction of the driveway. There was an orchard, and a kitchen
garden situated south of the castle. A drive, lined with lindens
on both sides, leading from the park to a renaissance castle with
a hexagonal tower in the village of Rakovice was also built at
the same time.
The drive was embellished with statues from the workshop of Jan
Hammer, who was born in Plzen (Pilsen). He came to Cimelice in
1735 and lived there until 1768. His workshop produced sculptures
of high artistic quality. Statues from the park and drive were
moved to the stone bridge near Nerestce, to the crossroads and
the bridge in Cimelice (statues of St Vaclav, St Jan Nepomucky,
St Norbert and St Vojtech), to the wall of the Cimelice cemetery,
and to the hill on the road to Mirotice. A few of Hammer's
statues also grace the old stone bridge in Pisek.
The castle garden has made Cimelice famous in recent years with
impressive flower exhibitions, which are professionally organised
every second year.
The vicarage (reinstated here in 1749), the school (1808) and the
manorial hospital (1804) were built along the road from the
castle to the Cimelice church.
The church of St. Trinity is now a small museum
of architectural styles. A former, smaller, gothic chapel forms
today's vestry and it has a renaissance dome with paintings,
baroque altars, an empire-style confessional and a chancel.
The church was repaired and enlarged in 1822 by the Wratislavs.
It contains some remarkable pieces of art - a gothic statue of
the Madonna from the second half of the 15th century; richly
decorated baroque altars and a font; a few precious gravestones
from the 16th and 17th centuries, and coat of arms of Karel
Bissingen in stone. St Trinity's statue (in the rococo style)
dominates the space in front of the church.
J. F. Jöndl built the Wratislav burial chamber, combined with a
chapel in the empire style, in Cimelice cemetery in 1817. The
chamber resembles a small Greek temple, with a triangular gable
placed on an entablature supported by four Doric columns.