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Schloss Děčín – history and legends

Děčín Castle (Tetschen) stands on a rock above the Elbe at the gateway to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. An early medieval castle became a large Baroque palace; from 1628 to 1932 it belonged to the Counts of Thun-Hohenstein. After decades as barracks – most recently for Soviet troops, until 1991 – it has been restored by the town of Děčín.

From Elbe castle to Baroque palace

Probably at the end of the 10th century, the Přemyslids built a castle here to control shipping on the Elbe; around 1305 it passed to the Wartenbergs. In the second half of the 16th century it belonged to the Saxon von Bünau family, who converted it into a Renaissance palace. In 1628, in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, the Protestant Bünaus were forced to sell to the Thun-Hohensteins, who in the 17th century had the 292-metre-long “Lange Fahrt” (the “Long Ride”, a walled approach) and the Rose Garden laid out.

Chopin and the Empress

In September 1835 Frédéric Chopin was a guest here for five days and played his Waltz in A flat major, Opus 34 Number 1, known as the “Tetschen Waltz” – dedicated to Countess Josephine von Thun-Hohenstein. From 8 to 10 June 1854 Emperor Franz Joseph and the newly married Empress Elisabeth came for a state banquet, together with the monarchs of Prussia and Saxony.

Baroque and Neoclassicism

In the late 17th century Maximilian Thun had the palace rebuilt in High Baroque style – this is when the Lange Fahrt, the Rose Garden, the riding arena and the palace church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross were created. From 1786 to 1803 there followed a Neoclassical remodelling under Josef Václav Kosch: older buildings were demolished and the palace became a unified ensemble, with its slender clock tower facing the Elbe. That is how it still looks today.

The Tetschen Altarpiece

In 1808 Count Franz Anton Thun bought Caspar David Friedrich's famous painting “Das Kreuz im Gebirge” (“The Cross in the Mountains”) for his wife Theresia Maria – hence the name “Tetschener Altar”, the Tetschen Altarpiece. For a long time it was said that the painting had been commissioned for the palace chapel; research disproved that in 1977. It hung in the Countess's bedroom, next to a copy of Raphael's Sistine Madonna. In 1921 Dresden bought the painting – today it hangs in the Galerie Neue Meister.

Leo Thun and the library

Leo Thun-Hohenstein was born in the palace in 1811; as Austrian Minister of Religion and Education from 1849 to 1860 he modernised the universities and admitted Protestant and Jewish scholars. The Thuns' library comprised more than 65,000 volumes; it was sold in 1930 and scattered after 1945, but in 2018 some 4,000 volumes returned to the palace – you can see them on the second tour route.

The gardens

The Rose Garden was created at the end of the 17th century as a Baroque parterre garden with sculptures, water channels and fountains; in 1881 the gardener Franz Josst laid out a rosarium, and by 1887 87 varieties were blooming there. After a complete restoration, with around 700 roses and the restored Sala terrena, it has been open again since 21 March 2026. In the South Gardens, with the tea pavilion of 1737, there were once 18 heated glasshouses – in 1852 the giant water lily Victoria regia flowered here for the first time on the European mainland. Today peacocks strut about there.

Barracks and rebirth

In 1932 the Thuns sold the palace to the Czechoslovak state; from 1934 it was used as barracks – for border troops, then the Wehrmacht, the Czechoslovak army and, from 1968 to 1991, the Soviet army, partly as a military hospital. Since 1991 it has belonged to the town of Děčín, which is restoring it step by step. Today it also houses an exhibition of the regional museum and the district archive.

Legend The Bünau in the boat

Rudolf von Bünau, the Protestant lord of Tetschen, had to leave Bohemia in 1630 because of his faith. He got into a boat with his family, let it drift down the Elbe and vowed: wherever the boat comes ashore of its own accord on the Meissen bank, there I shall stay. It came ashore at Prossen, right next to Königstein. Bünau bought the palace and estate of Prossen and lived there until his death in 1654.

Links to other places

The Wartenbergs of Tetschen also owned the Schreckenstein and Tollenstein for a time; in 1436 one of them held the castle of Arnstein in Saxon Switzerland as a pledge. With the Bünaus, Tetschen was ruled by the same family that owned Weesenstein, Kuckuckstein and Lauenstein. The little hunting lodge of Christianenburg on the border near the Schneeberg belonged to the Thuns' lordship of Tetschen.

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