Chroustovice: Castle Gardens, River Landscape and Historical Traces

Chroustovice combines a castle complex on both banks of the Novohradka River with a Baroque-inspired garden landscape, historic ecclesiastical buildings and distinctive details in the townscape. This creates a destination where cultural history, river nature and smaller discoveries in the town can be combined.

Castle Gardens and River Landscape

The Chroustovice castle gardens form the centre of a Baroque-designed landscape. They are part of a unique historic green space from the late Baroque period, influenced by the designs of André Le Nôtre and featuring a pronounced illusionistic design. In the formal garden, avenues of linden trees line the monumental canal of the Novohradka. At the same time, the section of the Novohradka enclosing Chroustovice features a natural riverbed with meanders, sand and gravel banks, pools and remnants of floodplain vegetation. Designed park spaces and a diverse river landscape thus meet directly in the history of the town.

Church and Historical Details

The present-day Church of Saint James the Greater in Chroustovice was built in 1744 after the earlier church had been demolished. Inside, the pewter baptismal font bears the year 1510. This means that different periods of history meet in one place: the present church from the 18th century and a baptismal font whose date reaches back to the early 16th century.

Historical Traces in the Townscape

In Chroustovice Square, a small park to the left of the church contains a column with a statue of the Virgin Mary from 1804. In the lower part of the square, an iron cross with Christ, erected in 1836, stands in front of the municipal office. On the road to Luže stands a statue of the Holy Trinity, created in 1891 by the local sculptor Dušánek based on a model from the sculpture school in Hořice. On the road via Březovice to Chrudim, between four mature linden trees, stands a stone statue of Saint John of Nepomuk from 1729.

Orientation for Your Stay

The stone signpost is also part of the history of the townscape: it is made of local sandstone with an inserted ceramic section and stands on the left at the turn-off to Městec and Uhersko, at the edge of a large lawn belonging to the local school. Chroustovice Castle is normally not open to the public. However, an open gardens day with guided tours starting at 13:00 and 15:00 is planned there for 20 September 2026. When choosing accommodation in Chroustovice, you can therefore plan your trip around your preferred combination of garden and cultural history, local details and river landscape, without assuming access to the castle outside this planned date.

For further travel planning, you can also visit Ústupky, Dědová, Luže, Žlebské Chvalovice, Horní Bradlo, Licibořice, Krouna and Zaječice.

For the higher-level travel overview: Chrudim District.