Manetin: Discover Baroque Art and Landscapes

Manetin combines a rich Baroque art history with gardens, parkland, and routes through the surrounding area. If you’re looking for a destination where architecture, sculptures, and nature offer distinct points of interest, the town has plenty to explore. Manetin’s urban conservation area includes 25 monuments; it was designated in 1992. An ensemble of more than 30 Baroque statues and sculptural groups has also been preserved here.

Sculptures and Architectural History

The Holy Trinity sculptural group, dating from 1719, dominates the main square. Today, a sandstone copy stands there, created by academic sculptor Jiří Novák between 1998 and 2000. The historic Vysoká cesta offers further examples of Baroque design: it connected Manetin with the settlement near St. Barbara’s Church and was adorned between 1728 and 1734 with 14 larger-than-life statues of saints from the workshop of sculptor Josef Herscher. A sculptural group dominates the main square; Vysoká cesta was adorned with 14 larger-than-life statues of saints.

St. John the Baptist Church also brings together different periods of construction. Its existence has been documented since 1182; its present form was created during a reconstruction from 1711 to 1717. Remains of the chancel walls and the tower survive from the original Gothic church, while the interior furnishings are predominantly Baroque. Together with the statues around the town, they create a picture in which medieval heritage and Baroque forms stand side by side.

Castle Grounds, Garden, and Orangery

The Manetin castle grounds include a French garden and an English park. The English landscape park was laid out south of the Manětínský potok in the early 19th century. Its features include a pond with its own water supply, a hermitage, and a pavilion on an artificial hill. The park can therefore be considered a point of interest in its own right, alongside the sculptures and church buildings.

The castle orangery preserves parts of its original wooden structure and glazed wall, a brick-built aviary, and remnants of 18th-century Baroque wall paintings. It was decided that its restoration should aim for a form close to its Baroque appearance. The surviving architectural and painted details give the orangery its own cultural and historical character; the restoration decision should be understood as a plan, not as a statement that the renovation has been completed.

Landscape and Routes

The landscape also offers clear points of reference. Chlumská hora, Doubravický vrch, also known as Kozelka, and Zbraslavský vrch rise above the Manětínská kotlina basin. The Lomské vrchoviny forest complex lies south of Manetin. The hills around the basin and the forest to the south thus represent different aspects of the landscape.

For cycling, there are two routes with different lengths and itineraries: the 37-kilometer “Baroko II” cycle route passes through Manetin. The 58-kilometer “Hřebenem Chlumské hory na Třebouňský vrch” route starts and ends in Manetin.

A shorter connection is the nearly three-kilometer Mlýnská stezka between Manetin and Nečtiny. It features nine stops with information boards and hand-carved wooden sculptures. It is considerably shorter than the two cycling routes and connects the towns with its own focus on information boards and wood carvings. When choosing your destination, you can decide whether to focus mainly on architectural and art history, the parkland, or a route of a particular length.

Discover more destinations: Líšťany, Kaceřov, Zruč-Senec, Žilov, Ulice, Štichovice, Druztová, Bílov.

For the broader travel overview: Plzeň-Sever District.