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Liberec Chateau was built in the Renaissance style, and was completed in 1587. The rare Renaissance chapel from the beginning of the 17th century has been preserved in the chateau. There is also a beautiful park open to the public, which is ideal for relaxing in or taking a short stroll.

In 1583-1587 the brothers Kryštof and Melchior of Redern had a noble residence erected to highlight their ever more important status in the Habsburg Monarchy. It is thought to have been built by Marcus Spazio of Lanzo, who worked in Zhořelec and also built the original Liberec town hall and oversaw the conversion of Frýdlant Castle into a Renaissance chateau. The Liberec chateau was also built in the Late Renaissance style, with two floors, a gable roof and a plot of land surrounded by a wall, which had oval-shaped bastions in the corners.

After the death of her two brothers, the estate was managed by Kateřina of Redern, née Šliková, who had a chapel built on the chateau corner in 1604-1606. It was probably constructed by Jan Arkon of Zittau. The interior fixtures and fittings have been preserved mostly in their original form. The most valuable of these is the seven-metre-high altar, while much of the southern wall is taken up by the oratory; the organ choir is on the eastern side and the pulpit to the north. The relatively small interior is not vaulted, but has a coffered ceiling with 42 panels featuring ornamental motifs. The chapel interior is impressive for its outstanding craftsmanship, lavish carvings and gilded paintwork. From the outside, the chapel is fairly simple, topped by a turret with a lantern. A tower was built onto the northern corner of the chateau at the same time as the chapel; this has a weather vane at the top dated 1604. It is the only one of the chateau towers to have survived.

In 1609 a perpendicular wing was built onto the chapel for Kateřina’s sister Mikuláška Nosticová, née Šliková. The two-storey building with its simple arcades completed the inner part of the chateau, which later essentially became the courtyard of honour. The entrance to the organ choir in the chapel led in from this wing.

In 1615 the chateau was engulfed by a fire; although the chapel was spared, the Redern Wing burned down to the cellar vaults. The townspeople attributed the fire to the godless deeds of the countess, who had brought a figurine of the Virgin Mary from the church in Hejnice to Liberec, together with sacrificial candles that she had remelted for use on her table. Jan Arkon was commissioned to rebuild the burnt-out chateau, and he raised the building by adding another floor.

Another chateau wing was built by Johann Josef Kunze during the era of Kristián Filip Clam-Gallas in 1773-1776. The two-storey Classicist building was constructed next to the Nostic Wing and was called the New, Summer or also Garden Chateau. In the second half of the 19th century a four-sided tower was added to the chateau, linking the New Chateau to the Nostic Wing, and was so massive that it dominated the site.

Over the centuries the chateau was rebuilt numerous times, altering its original appearance. It lost its enclosure (all that remained was the northern bastion by the chapel) and the earthworks around reduced the level of the ground by an entire floor, so that the original main entrance to the chateau was on the second floor and was closed off. The large chateau castle park, originally covering an area of more than 4 hectares, was gradually pruned away on all sides, until only a tiny remnant remained.

By the mid-19th century the chateau had ceased to serve its original purpose, and gradually housed the district court, a hostel for the staff of the chateau administration and the State Forests and Estates directorate, as well as a university. The chateau’s golden age came when the company Skloexport opened a unique showroom there for Czech glass, unrivalled anywhere else in the world. This led to the place being dubbed the “Glass Chateau”. While some other castles and chateaus were conquered by hostile forces, ours symbolically fell soon after the jingling of the keys that marked the revolution. Skloexport closed down, the showroom disappeared, and the chateau was left abandoned and forgotten. 

The complex now belongs to a private company and generally only comes to life during ANIFILM, an international animated film festival that is hosted there.