Colloredo-Mannsfeld
For several centuries, the Colloredo-Mannsfeld family of princes and counts has been one of the noblest aristocratic families in the country. Originally Thuringian (according to other authors Swabian), the Colloredo-Mannsfelds emerged from the anonymity of history as early as the start of the 11th century.
At the beginning of the 13th century the family split into several branches. Like the Counts of Colloredo (the marquises di Santa Sofia e Recanati from Italy) and the Counts of Mels-Colloredo (who live in Italy and Austria), the branch of Colloredo-Waldsee has survived into the modern age. The German Mannsfeld family allegedly dates back to the middle of the 10th century.
The Colloredo-Mannsfeld family has had their home and property in the Czech Republic since the Thirty Years’ War. The property originated from the family seat in Opočno (in northern Bohemia). It was extended by marriage (Dobříš in Central Bohemia) and the purchase of Zbiroh in Western Bohemia.
World War II saw confiscation of the family’s property, including the Zbiroh and Opočno chateaux and other property. The Dobříš Chateau even served as a retreat for SS staff and part of the chateau’s furniture was stolen.
Zbiroh Estate
The Zbiroh estate was bought by the Colloredo-Mannsfeld family in 1879 at an auction from the Vienna Mortgage Bank, the largest creditor of the bankrupt businessman Bethel Strousberg. By investing a considerable amount of money and replacing the former staff, the owners significantly improved the state of the manor. After the end of the war, Jeroným Colloredo-Mannsfeld took back his property and managed it until nationalization in 1948. During the years 1948–1992, the state managed the property through state forest enterprises, state fisheries, and agricultural cooperatives. Then, based on restitution laws, Jeroným Colloredo-Mannsfeld’s property rights were restored. In 1993, he founded the Forest and Pond Administration and took over almost all local employees of the state forests and fisheries enterprises into the newly established company. After he died in 1998, his nephew and heir, Dipl. Ing. Jerome Colloredo-Mannsfeld, became the new owner.
Dobříš Estate
The Dobříš part of the inheritance includes the original family property. In 1630, the royal chamber sold the Dobříš estate to the Prussian Count Bruno of Mannsfeld. In 1771, the daughter of Jindřich Pavel František Mannsfeld was married to František Gundakar Colloredo. The condition of the marriage was to retain the name Mannsfeld in the surname of the newlyweds. Empress Maria Theresa confirmed the double-barrelled surname Colloredo-Mannsfeld in 1775. The last owner of this property before the Nazi expropriation in 1942 was Vikard Colloredo-Mannsfeld.
Restitution claims to the former Dobříš estate were asserted jointly by Ing. Jerome Colloredo-Mannsfeld and Kristina Colloredo-Mansfeld, owner of the former Opočno estate. After protracted lawsuits, the first forest lands were restituted in 2002. In 2004, the largest forest units in the cadastre of the town of Dobříš were restituted, and two new organizational units were established – the St. Anne Forest District and the Obora Forest District. Until the end of 2005, the restored properties were administered by the Zbiroh Forest and Pond Administration. By agreements concluded in December 2005, the two co-owners then divided the forests between them. After 1 January 2006, the St. Anne Forest District was managed by the Zbiroh Forest and Pond Administration, which was transformed on 1 April 2014 into the company Colloredo-Mannsfeld spol. s r.o., and the Opočno Forest District into the Forest Administration of Kristina Colloredo-Mansfeld Opočno. Today, the two companies, owned by the descendants of two branches of the Colloredo-Mannsfeld family, operate independently.
