| The Antonin Dvorak memorial
(A. Dvorak 1841-1904, Czech composer)
Vysoka u Pribrami
Trebsko 262 71
Tel.: 0306 / 918115
Fax.:0306 / 21105
Opening times: |
|
Daily (except Monday) |
| April - June |
10am - 4pm |
|
| July - August |
10am - 5pm |
|
| September - October |
10am - 4pm |
|
| November - March |
10am - 3pm |
(On Saturdays and Sundays only for booked groups) |
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This manor house, associated with the life and work of Antonin
Dvorak, is situated near the village of Vysoka, some sixty kilometers to the southwest of
Prague. Today it stands as a cultural memorial and includes the main house, a detached
garden house and an extensive park with two lakes. It is only a short walk from the manor
house to the lake called Rusalka (water nymph), said to have been an inspiration for one
of Dvorak's most famous operas.
Count Vaclav Kounic built the manor house in 1878 in the
neo-renaissance style, as a summer retreat. The Czech architect Cenek Gregor designed it.
During the last thirty years it has become the Antonin Dvorak Memorial. Extensive
renovation and reorganization took place between 1990-1993. In May 1994 it was reopened as
the memorial to Dvorak and marked by a new modern exhibition area.
 First,
this historical property serves to reflect the personality of Count Kounic and his wife
Josefina, a leading actress of the Provisional Theatre in Prague. Second, the exhibition
itself is devoted to Antonin Dvorak and gives information about his life, work and his
stay in Vysoka. He had visited Vysoka for the first time in the autumn of 1877, to attend
the marriage of Vaclav Kounic to his sister-in-law, Josefina Cermaková. Later, he was to
buy his own small property on the estate.
The restoration combines the original historical building with
contemporary architectural vision, to reflect the importance of this country setting as an
inspiration for some of Dvorak's finest works. Stage models of the best-known operas, as
well as costumes from the opera Rusalka, form the final part of the permanent exhibition.
There is also a new concert room on the ground floor, while the basement rooms have been
adapted for social and cultural meetings and receptions.
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Symphony No.7 d-minor
Slovanishe dances