Nové Hrady (Ústí nad Orlicí District)

Nové Hrady (Neuschloss) is a municipality and village in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 300 inhabitants.

Administrative parts
The villages of Mokrá Lhota and Rybníček are administrative parts of Nové Hrady.

Etymology
After the settlement was founded, it was called Boží Dům (i.e. "God's house") after the first church built in the area. When the old castle was replaced by a new one, the village was renamed Nové Hrady (literally "new castles").

Geography
Nové Hrady is located about 22 km southwest of ústí nad Orlicí and 32 km southeast of Pardubice. It lies in the Svitavy Uplands. The highest point is at 470 m above sea level. A set of fishponds supplied by the brook Hradecký potok is located in the village.

History
The first written mention of Nové Hrady is from 1293. At that time, the village belonged to the Litomyšl estate and shared its owner. A late Gothic castle was built on the site of an old castle in 1442–1468 by the then-owner of Litomyšl, Zdeněk Kostka of Postupice, and the Nové Hrady estate was established. The Gothic castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance residence in the 15th century, but during the Thirty Years' War, it was looted and destroyed by Swedish army.

Nové Hrady saw its rise in the 18th century. In 1750, the French aristocratic Harbuval de Chamarè family bought the estate and had built the Nové Hrady Castle. The family gradually became poorer, so at the beginning of the 20th century, they sold the estate.

Transport
There are no railways or major roads passing through the municipality.

Sights
Nové Hrady is known for Nové Hrady Castle. It was built in the Rococo style in 1773–1777, in the style of French summer residence. The castle is nicknamed "Czech Versailles" and "Little Schönbrunn". The building is unique within the country for the style in which it was built and because it was never rebuilt. It is privately owned, but it is open to the public and offers sightseeing tours. The castle is surrounded by several gardens and with and English-style park, in which a hill with ruins of the former Gothic castle is located.

Other sights include the Church of Saint James the Great, built in the Baroque style in 1724, and the Stations of the Cross in the English park from 1767.