1 Camille de Neufville’s Alternative Villa Models: Ultramontanism in Provincial France, c.1630-1693 Renaissance villa architecture is a rare phenomenon in Bohemia. Aside from the Hvězda near Prague (Star Summerhouse, or better Star Villa) built in the 1550s by Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol (1529–1595), 1 Villa Kratochvíle (its name meaning Kurzweil in German, pastime in English) in South Bohemia is the only signifcant preserved example of this architectural and cultural type (Fig. 1). In general, it is ftting to compare Kratochvíle with the splendid Star Villa. Te sophisticated Habsburg architecture and decoration of the latter presents itself to the visitor as a unique curiosum; the same intention to astonish and surprise visitors is apparent in Kratochvíle. It was built in the 1580s by Vilém of Rožmberk (1535–1592), the head of the Rožmberk (Rosenberg) family, the highest burgrave and the most important representative of the Bohemian Estates. It is not a coincidence that Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612) became interested in the villa, purchasing it in 1602. Immediately afer he acquired the estate, Rudolf II commissioned an extensive documentation of its compound that included vedute of the building from all four sides, ground plans of all foors, and perspective depictions of the chapel interiors and the interiors of several other rooms. 2 Kratochvíle was likely connected with the exclusive milieu of the Rudolphinian court. As late as in the second half of the seventeenth century, Bohuslav Balbín, the Bohemian Jesuit historian, mentions Kratochvíle in his Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae, describing it as a mansion whose garden could compete with those of Emperor Rudolf II. 3 Kratochvíle’s contemporaries and visitors were also well aware of its exceptional character and visual appeal. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Václav Březan ( c. 1568–1618), the Rožmberk chronicler, described the mansion as a “very expensive and beautiful building”, emphasising its remarkable decoration: “…the new building has decoration and various beautiful images, all well-made Te Villa Kratochvíle in Bohemia: Imagery, Senses, and Meaning in Vilém of Rožmberk’s Aristocratic Hunting Lodge Ondřej Jakubec Tis paper (translated by Hana and Steven Logan) was written thanks to financial support of grant ESF ECOP “Confessional Culture between Middle Ages and Modern Times – Reinforcing International Research” at the Department of History, Palacký University Olomouc, CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0192. 1 Ivan P. Muchka et al., Hvězda: Arcivévoda Ferdinand Tyrolský a jeho letohrádek v evropském kontextu (Praha: Artefactum, 2014). 2 František Mareš and Josef Sedláček, Soupis památek historických a umě- leckých v politickém okresu Prachatickém (Praha: Archaeologická komise při ČA Františka Josefa, 1913), 85. 3 Bohuslav Balbín, Krásy a bohatství české země: Výbor z díla Rozmanitosti z historie Království českého, trans. and eds. Helena Businská and Zdeňka Tichá (Praha: Panorama, 1986), 138–139.