ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA | CZECH REPUBLIC |
Středočeský kraj | Central Bohemia region |
Okres: Nymburk |
Loučeň (in German: Lautschin) is situated at an elevation of 195 m in central Bohemia, about 11 km north of the district town Nymburk and about 48 km northeast of Prague. The municipality has a population of about 1,400 (2023).
Loučeň was first mentioned in 1223. In the 14th century the place was probably divided, because the patronage of the local parish church belonged to several Vladiks, but since 1376 it was owned as a single estate. From the 17th century, Loučeň, together with the neighboring town of Dobrovice, formed a large manorial estate, whose last owner from the Waldstein family bequeathed the estate to the princes of Fürstenberg in 1756. In 1809, Loučeň finally came to the Bohemian line of the princes of Thurn and Taxis, in whose possession it remained until 1945. The status of městys (about market town) was granted to Loučeň 1906 and then again in 2006.
Loučeň castle [left, no. 4493] was built in 1704–1713 by the architect František
Maxmilián Kaňka in Baroque style in place of an earlier manor house that had first been mentioned in 1571. The church of the Assumption of Mary is
connected to the left wing of the three-winged structure. From 1828 onwards, an English landscape park was created around the castle buildings.
After completing his novel Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge ('The Notes of Malte Laurids Brigge'), the poet Rainer Maria Rilke spent the summer
of 1910 at the castle at the invitation of his patron princess Marie of Thurn and Taxis.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou%C4%8De%C5%88]