Savoia Castle - History - Early History

Early History

The founder, and maybe the builder too, was probably Domaslav (Domaslaus de Squorz) around 1279, an important courtier and landed official, the butler of Queen Kunigunda of Slavonia(1262) and her food taster (1263–1269, 1279), Lord High Treasurer (1267–1278) and one of the ten Burgraves of Prague Castle. From the castle he built, only the deep well is now preserved, cut in the granite rock, which was situated near to the early gothic palace - that standing on the site of the present school building.

The coat-of-arms of Domaslav of Škvorec (three vertical stripes), which cannot be found later in Central Bohemia, proving that the castle must have passed to another noble family not long after. The names of the owners until after 1450 are not now known.

In the second half of 14th century, the castle was owned by the Olbramovic family of Prague. One of them, Olbram son of Menhart (died around 1388), installed the priest of the church in Horky, which already belonged to Škvorec by 1354. Olbram son of Menhart was from 1356 the Reeve of Prague New Town and in 1373-1380 the Burgrave of Vyšehrad. In connection with Škvorec he is mentioned only two times: first as Olbram of Škvorec (in Skworzecz) in the records of visitation of the Prague archdeacon Pavel of Janovice from 1380, and as Olbram son of Menhart of Škvorec a document from 1385 (de Skworecz).

After his death, his three sons Olbram, Pavel and Václav became the owners of Škvorec. The most important of them was Olbram: in 1377 he started to study at the Faculty of Law of Prague University. In 1379 he became the canon of Prague and Vyšehrad. Between 1389-1396 he was the provost of St.Apolinar in Prague New Town, and also the chancellor of the king’s brother Jan of Zhořelec. On 31 January 1396, he became the Archbishop of Prague (he was installed by Pope Boniface IX.). His brother Pavel was a Burgrave in Týn nad Vltavou (1397), and Václav earned 500 marks of silver in the king’s service in 1396. These successes of the three brothers had an influence on their building activity at Škvorec, because its early gothic castle didn’t conform to the needs of noblemen at the end of 14th century.

According to the archeological, historical and building research made by architect J. Žižka, it appears that round 1400 the family of Olbramovic essentially enlarged the area of the castle and added to the buildings. Opposite the old early-gothic palace they built an oblong tower with a pointed-arched gate and with a small wicket, together with drawbridges across the newly dug water-filled moat. Above it, east of the entrance tower, they built another gothic palace with a chapel, whose chaplain called Václav is noted in judgment roll of the Archbishopric of Prague in 1404. Due to the building of the new palace, Škvorec thus had two palaces, as was faithfully recorded in the fideicommissum documents in 1654.

The archbishop with his two brothers owned Škvorec castle until 2 May 1402, when he died. His two surviving brothers then divided the property amongst themselves. Next, Jan Nichilen of Prague bought the Václav’s share (the rent from Škvorec Castle, half of the farmyard and some villages) in 1411, and before 1418 the owner of it was Jan of Klučov. The second half of property was still owned by Pavel of Škvorec until his death (after 1418).

His widow Eliška (Elisabeth) married before 1422 Jan Ohnništko of Ohnišťany, who appropriated the second half of the property too. But in 1426 he violated the parliamentary peace, when he killed his ex-neighbor Prokop Trčka of Květnice in a duel in Prague. As a result he was brought to court and then executed. Eliška became a widow again and very soon she had big debts. Because of them, she had to sell the rent from Škvorec, Hostyň and the half of the market-town of Úvaly to Prokop Bervík of Malešice in the same year. But he sold it only a short time after to Vilém of Kounic, from whom it was bought by Petřík Olbrámovic (shortly called Olbrámek), and thanks to this the whole property was again owned by the family of Olbramovic of Prague.