Grotta v parku zámku Zásmuky / Grotto in park of Zásmuky Chateau (Central Bohemia) - Baroque Architecture on Waymarking.com

Unique, by mosaic covered Baroque grotto (building with artificial cave), decorates park of Zásmuky Chateau (Zámek Zásmuky), in a small market town Zasmuky in Central Bohemia region of the Czech Republic.

Baroque grotto, work of renown architect of Italian origin Giovanni Battista Alliprandi from the end of the 17th century, is a small single storey freestanding rectangular building. The whole surface of the grotto east façade is decorated by mosaic of pebbles. The interior is divided into three chambers - artificial caves. Central has an oval shape and two side chambers have square plan. Interior is currently under a complete reconstruction, exterior is reconstructed.

Grotto (Italian grotta and French grotte) is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic, or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide. The creation of artificial grottoes was an introduction of Mannerist style to Italian, and then to French, gardens of the mid 16th century. The outside of such grottoes might be architectural or designed like an enormous rock or a rustic porch or rocky overhang; inside one found a temple or fountains, stalactites and even imitation gems and shells (sometimes made in ceramic); herms and mermaids, mythological subjects suited to the space: naiads, or river gods whose urns spilled water into pools. [wiki]