Schillersdorf, Moravia, Austria

The former estate of Schillersdorf, now known as Šilheřovice, is a municipality and village in Opava District in the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. Šilheřovice is located about eight kilometres north of Ostrava, on the border with Poland.

The first written mention of Šilheřovice is in a deed from 1377, according to which the properties of Duke Nicholas II were divided among his sons and Šilheřovice became property of Duke Nicholas III. The village was then part of the Silesian Duchy of Opava within the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Along with the rest of the Hlučín Region, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia after the First Silesian War in 1742.

In 1787, the Prussian nobleman Friedrich von Eichendorff purchased the estate and had a Neoclassical castle built. The castle building is of three wings and two storeys, with a mansard extension. At the courtyard side there is an accessory building at each wing, as tall as the castle with a richly decorated façade. The form of the castle is in the shape of a letter ‘E,’ with a courtyard. Friedrich’s young nephew, the poet Joseph von Eichendorff, spent several vacations at Schillersdorf.

Schillersdorf and the Rothschilds

In 1842, Schillersdorf Castle was acquired by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (1774-1855), founder of the Viennese Rothschild banking house. When he inherited it, his son, Anselm Salomon (1803-1874) transformed it into a model farm, equipping it with modern machinery, most notably a steam pump which brought water from the river, and a sophisticated system of underground pipes to irrigate the park which was laid out in the ‘English-style’ and expanded with greenhouses and orangeries.

The estate was noted for its varied and plentiful game, with a hunting lodge in the park which was much enjoyed by guests. When Anselm’s cousin Anthony Nathan de Rothschild (1810-1876) visited from England in 1869, he wrote to his bothers: "Schillersdorf is a very fine estate… The house is very comfortable, very much in the style of the old house of Ferrières.  The park… has been laid out recently like Regents Park.  There are magnificent woods of fir trees of thousands of acres all outside, so that shooting is excellent and the drives and rides charming."

The estate subsequently passed to Salomon Albert von Rothschild (1844-1911) and then to his son Alphonse Mayer (1878-1942). At the time of the Anschluss, the Nazi annexation of Austria in March 1938, Alphonse and his wife Clarice (1894-1967) were in London. They managed to meet their daughters in Switzerland. The family travelled together to England, and then to America, where Alphonse died on 1 September 1942. After the war, his widow Clarice assiduously pursued claims for the restitution of family assets, property and collections seized during the war but was unsuccessful in reclaiming Schillersdorf.

After 1945, the castle was used a youth home, a mining apprentice training school, and a vocational training centre. Since 2008, the castle has been owned privately and extensive sympathetic renovation has been carried out to both the exterior and interior, and it is accessible to the public for commercial events.

Return to Estates listing