Together with Babiččino údolí (Grandmother's valley), situated between Česká Skalice and Havlovice, it offers the Baroque architecture and Bohemian landscape, ranking among the best-known and most-frequented places in East Bohemia.

In 1795 the duke renounced his Duchy (Courland) to the Empress Catherine II and moved permanently to his lordships of Sagan (Zaháň) and Náchod.

After the duke's death in 1800 the Náchod estate was inherited by Petr's daughter Kateřina Frederika Benigna, Duchess of Zaháň, known from B. Němcová's novel's Babička, as the “lady princess”.

She surrounded herself with a prominent circle of friends from the ranks of artists, philosophers and politicians and devoted her attention to social events, politics and travel.

Klemen Brühl, the family historian, wrote the following about her: “She is remarkable mature, she has a beautiful figure and face, she is proud and full of dignity, she enchants everyone with her kindness and female weakness.” After its reconstruction in the years 1825 to 1826 the château acquired the form of an elegant seat in the late Central European Classical and Empire style.

[1] Similarly as at nearby Opočno, members of the future “Holy Alliance” discussed the question of their common measures against the Emperor Napoleon of France.

Kateřina Zaháňská ranked among the passionate opponents of the “great conqueror” and rendered assistance and support to everyone who helped to accelerate his fall.

In the years 1840 to 1842 it was the property of the imperial count Octavian Lippe-Biesterfeld, from whom it was bought by one of his relations, George William, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, for 2.5 million gold florins.

[1] Apart from the château at Náchod, Ratibořice and Chvalkovice, some 113 villages and small towns, large forests and mines at Statoňovice belonged to the estate at that time.

The main stand room on the first floor is the Salon of the Three Emperors, whose name symbolically expresses the importance of Ratibořice during the Napoleonic wars.

While the gentlemen discussed political and military events over a cigar and a glass of wine, the Ladies’ Salon, also prevailingly representative of the Second Rococo style, witnessed conservations about fashion.

The interior is dominated by a portrait of Princess Louisa of Denmark by the painter Otto Bastr and a two-part bureau of hard polished wood.

The Graphic Chamber fulfils the function of a connecting room and it gained its name due to the interesting collection of small paintings with subjects taken from the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm.

The Study evokes to the greatest extent the atmosphere of the environment in which the Ratibořice “lord of the manor” lived in the latter half of the 19th century.

The best-known room in the entire château is the Chamber of the Princess, which inspired that the writer Božena Němcová to set the plot for one of the chapters of her novel Babička.

Situated beyond the connecting passage is the Foster-daughters’ Chamber, which is imbued with the atmosphere of Biedermeier comfort and good cheer and evokes memories of another well-known character of Babička - Countess Hortensie.

The toilet room, equipped with a washing set, a small table and a rotating mirror, a screen and a clothes stand, has a purely private character.

The first château gardener was a Czech named Karel Binder, his successor being Gottlich Bosse, to whom the main credit for the building-up of the park is attributed.

Standing under the lime tree in front of the mill is a Statue of the Virgin Mary which, as the donation inscription of 1796 tell us, was erected at the cost of the Ratibořice miller Antonín Ruder and his wife Anna.

The group of statues was realized in sandstone by the sculptor Otto Gutfreund after his own design in whose case he cooperated with the architect Professor Pavel Janák.

In 1898 the composer Karel Kovařovic lived here, being inspired by the locality to write his opera "Na Starém bělidle" (On the Old Bleaching Ground).

In spite of the fact that Kateřina Zaháňská had the Old Bleaching Ground demolished in connection with the adaptations and enlargement of the park, it was just here that Božena Němcová situated the plot of her novel Babička.

Furnished according to the narration of the writer – with period furniture and small articles from the property of the Božena Němcová Museum at Česká Skalice.

The original wooden weir had been adjusted several times during the latter half of the 19th century in connection with the construction of a larger irrigation system for the Ratibořice meadow.

Opening up beyond the bridges is a view of “Rýzmburský altán” (Rýzmburk Arbour), built above a steep slope in the ruins of a medieval castle of the same name at the end of the 18th century.