Commemorative Plaque to Bedřich Všemír Berchtold at Buchlov Castle

 

There is a commemorative plaque to Bedřich Všemír Berchtold (1781-1876) in Buchlov Castle above the entrance door to the premises where this important naturalist, physician and traveller lived in the last years of his life. Many of the natural history exhibits that Count Berchtold brought back from his many travels are now part of the exhibition at Buchlov Castle.

 

Bedřich Všemír Berchtold was a remarkable figure of scientific life in the Czech lands. He worked as physician for a short time in Tučapy, where he owned a farming estate, but in 1815 he moved to Prague and devoted himself fully to botanical studies, later especially to economic botany. Berchtold`s interest in botany was awakened by the well-known palaeobotanist Caspar Sternberg, whom Berchtold had visited during Sternberg`s time in Regensburg. The two men worked closely together in Bohemia in later years. Among other activities, they financially supported the publication of the first complete Czech flora by the Presl brothers, Flora Cechica. It is an interesting fact, that, when the Patriotic (later National) Museum was founded in 1818, two designs were submitted, one by Caspar Sternberg, who moved to Bohemia to Březina Castle in 1808, and the other by Bedřich Všemír Berchtold. Although Sternberg's concept was adopted when the museum was founded, Count Berchtold became one of its first honorary members and also donated his Czech herbarium to the museum. Bedřich Všemír Berchtold was an enthusiastic traveller and brought back valuable natural history material from the foreign lands. He explored not only Switzerland, Germany or the Netherlands, but also Palestine, Egypt or Asia Minor. Between 1846 and 1847, he accompanied the Viennese traveller Ida Pfeifer to Brazil as part of her round-the-world trip. The natural history and ethnological exhibits that Count Berchtold brought from distant lands are now part of the exposition of the National Museum or are at Buchlov Castle, where he lived in the last years of his life. The commemorative plaque to Bedřich Všemír Berchtold was installed at Buchlov Castle in the 1930s and is now is in the part of castle that is not open to the public. 

 

References

Hanuš, J.: Národní museum a naše obrození. 1. díl. Praha 1921, s. 261–262.

Hanuš, J.: Národní museum a naše obrození. 2. díl. Praha 1923.

Hoffmannová, E.: J. S. Presl, K. B. Presl. Praha 1973.

Koleška, Z.: Berchtold Bedřich Všemír 25.10.1781 – 3.4.1876. In: Biografický slovník českých zemí 4. Praha 2006, s. 437─438. 

 

LeO

Show in map