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Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

An 18thc Picnic and Photos at Dobříš Castle, Czechia

I’m visiting my dear friend Stella in Dunedin, and she wanted to see photos from my Europe trip.  Specifically, “ones where you dressed up”.

So I pulled up the photos from a gorgeous 18th century castle I visited in the Czech Republic, and I realised that not only had I never blogged about this visit, I hadn’t even finished editing and sorting the photos from the day!  I’d quickly picked a few for my post on the Tiney Piney 1790s dress, but the majority were still languishing in their folder.

That needed rectifying immediately.  First, the day was utterly perfect and gorgeous, second, the photos of it are the same, and third, Dobříš Castle is stunning.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

The visit to Dobříš Castle was thanks to the wonderful Hana Marmota and Klára of @klara_posekana.  They conspired for the three of us to get together while I was visiting Hana.  Hana booked a cute pension in Dobříš village. Klára researched and suggested activities.  She sent me a number of options, one of which was the gardens of Dobříš Castle.

I heard ‘orangery topped with pineapple-esque urns’ and I was sold.  What better match to my pineapple dress than a pineapple orangery!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

(Isn’t there something delightfully amusing about saying ‘pineapple orangery’?  Although the urns aren’t specifically meant to be pineapples, they just really look like it.  And there was no suggestion the orangery was ever used to grow pineapples).

So a visit to Dobříš Castle in costume was planned. Klára was coming by car, so she offered a picnic.  Hana and I travelled by train and bus thanks to the Czech Republics amazing public transport (I am SO envious of their system!), checked into the pension, and then debated if we could make ourselves dress up.

We decided we had to, because Klára was already dressed and on her way. I’m so glad we did.  It would have been such a pity to have missed the opportunity for photos in such a glorious spot!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Klára wore 18th century pastoral romantic attire, I wore 1790s, and Hana wore her Czech folk costume (which is 1900s in style).

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

And we all looked utterly fabulous!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

We entered the Castle through the front courtyard, bought our French garden tickets, and left the picnic basket at the front desk.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Round the side of the Castle, through gates, down a promenade, and to the orangery!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

The orangery is a highlight.  It features an elaborate tromp l’oile mural of a plaza and city.  It’s the largest façade painting in Europe.  Inside the orangery there is a museum, with exhibitions about the restoration of the orangery and mural, among other things.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Between the Orangery and the Castle itself stretches a formal French garden, with an elaborate tiered fountain, flowers, and topiary.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

The fountain has a story.  Stand with your back to it, throw a coin over your shoulder, and if it lands in the top tier you’ll meet your perfect partner.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

I didn’t toss a coin, but Klára’s husband did many years ago, and managed the top tier.  I got to meet her lovely husband and see the two of them together and based on that I think the story might be true!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

I’m not generally a huge fan of French gardens.  I prefer the less formal English style.  However, the ones at Dobříš are quite lovely.  They were also the perfect size: big enough to be imposing, but not so big that you felt like you were trekking along endless gravel paths.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

They also had a cunning hedge maze along one side, which would provide beautiful shelter and shade on a hot day.  (and perhaps a little shelter for a discreet moment alone with one’s inamorata…)

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

When we were tired of admiring the gardens and the castle facade and the orangery, we returned to the front gate to collect our basket.  We headed out into the English garden, and found a lovely spot to spread our feast.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Klára has been collecting pieces for historical picnicking for years, and it shows.  Everything was utterly delightful and equally delicious.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

(there were, as you can see, a couple concessions to modern convenience.  Sometimes you make life easier for an informal picnic!)

We finished picnicking and headed home just as the skies broke.  They had been threatening in the most picturesque and dramatic way all afternoon, and finally delivered on their threat.

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

What’s a little rain on a warm summers day after a perfect afternoon?  Nothing to dampen our spirits!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

Thank you Hana and Klára for being such amazing hosts!

Dobříš Castle Czechia thedreamstress.com

 

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

A visit to Skansen Open Air Museum in Stockholm

My last post was sad, so I think we need a happy post to balance it, so here’s a throwback to my visit to Europe in 2023.  One of the things I was told by Swedish friends in New Zealand that I absolutely must do whilst in Stockholm was to go to Skansen.

Luckily Elisa fully agreed with them!

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen is the world’s oldest open air museum.  It helped inspire places like Colonial Williamsburg, and is so iconic that ‘skansen’ is literally the word for an open air museum in Czech.

It features buildings from different eras from all across Sweden.  Some of the buildings are only viewable from the outside, but other are open on some days, so you can go inside.

The open buildings have docents in clothes matching the era and type of building doing work in keeping with the building.  All of the docents had a particular interest and expertise related to the building and its purpose.  It was fabulous.  Nerdling that I am I asked the hosts 18 gazillion questions.

Here’s some of what I saw:

An 18th century milestone (literally!) and a tall wooden belfry built in 1732-33

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The belfry has been coated with tar coloured red with falu red pigment.  The tar helps preserve the wood, and the red is more attractive than the standard tar colour.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

A storehouse for food.  What really struck me about this is how many similarities there are between this style of storehouse, and traditional Māori storehouses.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The High Loft and the New Loft, in ‘National Romantic’ style:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The first building we got to go in was the apothecary, and what a corker of a place to start!

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

It featured a taxidermy crocodile (I think it’s actually a caiman), without which no 18th century Swedish apothecary was complete!

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The docent host portrayed the apothecary’s wife, as women weren’t allowed to be apothecaries in their own right.  However, as most apothecaries were family businesses, it’s likely the wives did lots of dispensing and helping.

She had some 18th century apothecary mixes for us to smell.  Notice that the expectorant is ‘sin opium’ (without opium).

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Look at the gorgeous tile stove!  And all those beautiful bottles and drawers!

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

In the next room was equipment for distilling tinctures, drafting draughts and pulverising powders (tiny attempt at a Swedish pun – powder is ‘pulver’ in Swedish).

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

In the final room was the apothecary’s apprentice, busy making pastils in the 18th century manner:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

His pastils were made from clay, to imitate the texture of an 18th century pastil without including any of the real ingredients, mummy powder having (thankfully!) fallen out of favour as a medicine.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

In addition to buildings, the grounds of Skansen were full of plants & gardens specific to different areas and eras:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

And the ubiquitous and inevitable Canadian geese, those repositories of all the anger and rudeness that got drained out of the Canadian people:

(ETA: turns out they are barnacle geese!  See second photo & comments.  However, I’m leaving the Canadian geese comment, because people enjoyed it and there are/were Canadian geese at Skansen, just not in these photos)

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Barnacle Geese at Skansen thedreamstress.com

The next stop was a modest 19th century farmhouse:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Inside I got to try turnip for the first time (you don’t get a lot of turnips in Hawai’i!), and had a fascinating discussion with the docents about living history and culture.

Check out these double-decker curtained beds, helpful for keeping snug in the Swedish winter:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

And these cunning birch shoes:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

On the recommendation of the hosts in this house we headed off to the ladies summer house for cheesemaking:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

It’s the ladies summer house because in some parts of Sweden it was the job of the unmarried women to take the cows up the mountains to their summer grazing lands, and to make cheese and butter while having a (hopefully lovely) women’s only retreat.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

They were making mesost or messmör, a caramelised whey cheese.  I did not get the to try the cheese, but Elisa offered to buy some for me, with the warning that she didn’t care for the type personally, and the closest description she could give of it was ‘peanut butter cheese’.

Having finally had the opportunity to try brunost (the Norwegian style of whey cheese) this year, I can see what she meant.  I liked it, but it also completely confused my brain, which felt that cheese should not be sweet and peanut butter-y.  As long as I thought of it as ‘caramelised reduced dairy spread’ my brain agreed it was delicious.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

 

Then, past the manor house, and on to more food!  Only this time we didn’t get to eat it, just admire:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The manor house kitchen house had a spread of 18th century food of the type that might have been served at the manor house.  I hope someone got to eat some of this because it looks delicious!

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

The kitchen house also had the servants quarters:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

And a dining room with the most amazing hand-painted wallpaper:

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

From food, to finery.  We went up an exciting set of death stairs to see a jeweller at work.

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

Skansen Open Air Museum, Stockholm, Sweden thedreamstress.com

And that’s only 1/8th of what we saw.  What a fabulous day!