Stud Farm in Kladruby nad Labem

Come for a visit to the National Stud Farm in Kladruby nad Labem! You can enjoy tours of the stables, chateau, coach storage and harness storage, the museum of horse breeding in Kladruby, the forester’s house with a simulator of a ride in a coach – and if you still have some energy left, you can climb a lookout tower. The stud farm is a breeding stable of white horses of the Old Kladruby breed.

The stud farm in Kladruby nad Labem in East Bohemia is probably the oldest stud farm of its kind in the world. It was promoted to the imperial court stud farm by Emperor Rudolf II in 1579 and it has been the home of Old Kladruby horses since then. The Old Kladruby breed is a unique Czech breed for the ceremonial purposes of royal courts. The whole farm is a Czech national cultural monument, including the basic herd of white Old Kladruby horses, which you can see in Kladruby.

The whole area has recently been reconstructed and the Kladruby stud farm thus again has a classicist look and visitors can now see new tour areas and expositions. In addition to tours, the farm also organises several large festival events every year where you can see the Old Kladruby horses in action. The most important are the Rudolf Cup in April – international team racing, the Day of the Old Kladruby Horse in May, the Big Riding Day in June and Hubert’s Ride in October.

Visit the chateau

If you want to travel back in time to the era of the Austrian Emperor Francis Josef I and his charming wife Elizabeth of Bavaria, called Sisi, start with the tour of the stud farm and the chateau. Walk in the footsteps of the imperial couple through the twelve period-furnished halls and chambers, look inside the church they had built here and listen to stories about their unusual habits and extraordinary fates.

Stables, coach storage, harness storage and museum

Visit one of the oldest stud farms in the world, meet the Old Kladruby horses, the breed of emperors and kings, and find out what foals have to go through to become a breeding mare or a studhorse. In the coach storage, you can see the coach of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, the state coach of the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš G. Masaryk, and other valuable coaches and sleighs. The model of the imperial eight-horse tandem hitch is quite impressive. The museum will show you the history of horse breeding in Kladruby, which started more than five hundred years ago.

Go on a trip

Visit one of the oldest Baroque wooden houses in the region with the office of the forest manager. Behind the house is a unique simulator of a coach ride. Get on the coach, put on the 3D glasses and go on a ride along the Labe River. On workdays, you can also check out the still operating harness workshop.