Maria Stona - Literary Circles at The Castle Strebowitz

Literary Circles At The Castle Strebowitz

After the death of his father, Joseph took Maria Stonawski Scholz to Strebowitz Martinau and in northern Moravia, where the Strebowitz Castle and the surrounding park was their residence. At Castle Strebowitz Maria Stona was the center of a literary circle. Landowner and Countess Marie Stonawská-Scholzová loved art. She produced poetry, stories, novels, and travel sketches under the pseudonym Maria Stona. After a short marriage, she was able to live independently thanks to having financial security. She actively participated in the cultural life of the town – she visited exhibits and the theatre, but mainly she supported artists. In this way the château in Třebovice became a cultural centre where artists and the intelligentsia of various nations gathered. Stonawská-Scholzová bountifully hosted and supported local artists regardless of nationality, and eagerly introduced young artists to the public.

The list of important personalities who stayed at Třebovice includes writer Baroness Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, noted Austrian prose writer Stefan Zweig, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bertha von Suttner, writer Subhas Chandra Bose doctor and writer Karl Schönherr, the writer and journalist Paul Keller, the Danish literary critic Georg Brandes, and personalities of political life. She encouraged young artists who belonged to which the Czech pianist and composer Ilja Hurník and others traveled for Eastern Europe, Southern France and Spain.

Her extensive literary heritage, included travelogues, poetry, often sentimental, short stories, novellas and novels. Maria Stona was one of the most important women writers of her time. They drew their psychological empathy from the surrounding world, as Russian troops had occupied Moravia and Silesia in 1945 and Castle Strebowitz was lost as a family residence.

Maria Stona who died in 1944, created her works in German. The volumes of poetry have been translated after her death by the novelist Helen Salichová into the Czech language.