Dvůr Králové nad Labem

The hospital building offers you a look at the history of Baroque art, and the development of pharmacy from the Baroque period to the 20th century is depicted by exhibitions in the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum. The complex includes the church of the Holy Trinity, under which the monumental Špork family tomb, the sacristy and the “At the Pomegranate” Baroque pharmacy are located. In the lapidary, originals of the Virtue and Vice allegories from the most important Czech Baroque sculptor, Matyáš Bernard Braun, await you; copies of these statues line the path in front of both hospital wings. The main hospital corridor offers a newly-restored cycle of Dance of Death murals. The hospital terrace, meanwhile, is decorated with Braun’s allegory of the Eight Beatitudes. You can also take a look around the hospital garden, which contains other sculptural works, and once again serves as a herb, fruit-growing and vegetable-growing storage area. 

On the opposite bank of the Elbe, on the site of the former castle, your attention will be drawn to a cascading staircase decorated with statues of spouting Tritons above cascading troughs; in Špork’s time, wine used to flow through these during festivities. And this tradition, along with wine-making festivities, has returned to Kuks once more.

During recent years Kuks Hospital underwent a fundamental renovation, which succeeded thanks to the project KUKS - Pomegranate, and is unique in its extent.