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Vidim
The name Vidim was for the first time registered in 1294, when part of the village belonged to the cloister of Zbraslav and since 1295 also the office of bishop of Prague exercised its interests here. In the early 14th century there stood a fortress here and also the holders thereof are known. One of them was Půla of Vidim, who stood in for Jindřich of Vidim by a dispute with Mikuláš of Merunice, who owned those days Kostelce by Tupadly. It was not much later that Berka of Dubá – a holder of neighbouring Kokořín since 1320 - gained the dominion. In 1402 there came to division of the Berka´s dominion and the village Vidim, together with the castle Čáp, fell to Václav Berka of Dubá. Since then there were a number of the following holders of the dominion: knight Mikuláš of Lobkovic, the Smiřice family of Smiřice. In 1545 Tobiáš Hrzán, son of Václav Hrzán of Harasov, had the dominion of Vidim, together with the castle Houska, registered in the Tables of the Law. It was in the same century that the village experienced the following division between the brothers Hrzán of Harasov, Jiří and Václav. Jiří obtained the part of Vidim with the castle and courtyard, in addition Olešno, Jestřebice, Dobřeň, Litno, Střezivojice, Vlkov, Blatečky and Tobož. His son Oldřich bought later the dominions of Kokořín and Stráneč and annexed them to Vidim. After Oldřich Hrzán´s death his son sold the dominion in 1610 to the emperor and king Rudolf II.
One year later the successor of the emperor Rudolf II., emperor Matyas sold the whole dominion to Václav (senior) Berka of Dubá. After a long time Vidim came back again to the family of former holders. Not however for long. Václav Berka was one of 30 directors at the head of the Estates uprising in 1618 against the king Ferdinand II. and after the lost battle at the White Mount he accompanied king Fridrich of the Palatine at his escape from Bohemia. By those times the serves revolted and held up Vidim fortress and courtyard, both were ravaged and put on fire. Fire spread out to the village, which was nearly completely reduced to ashes. Confiscated dominion of Vidim was sold to Adam of Waldstein, who left it to Albrecht Václav Eusebio Waldstein, duke of Frýdlant, murdered in 1634 in Cheb.
Two years later the confiscated dominion was passed over again to Johann Böck, Waldstein´s general, as a reward for betrayal of duke of Frýdlant. Under the rule of his son, baron Böck, majority of population abandon their estates and escape away from both dominion and the country. In the years 1661-1700 the whole local region was Germanized, which affected especially Vidim, where more than a half of population got Germanized. After the Böck family holders of dominion had changed very quickly.
Earlier Vidim was a relatively big village with the number of inhabitants amounting to over 700, these days there live hardly more than a third thereof.
Vidim - CHATEAU
The chateau of Vidim was built in the former Horní Vidim opposite to St. Martin church. The date of the building 1696, as to the year written on the park wall small gate, doesn´t inspire confidence. Late Baroque style of the building intimates that the chateau was built in the middle of the 18th century under the Swertz-Spork family.
Originally it had a rectangular ground plan and two floors with a prismatic tower and onion cupola in the north side. The east front with entrance into the park is stressed with protruding buttress, a balcony on the first floor and an indented gable decorated with vases. At the same time there was founded a large park with a few ravines spanned by footbridges. There is a summer-house opposite to the main front. Park decoration was extended in the 2nd half of the 18th century with statues of ancient gods and putti. The latest adaptations of the chateau date back to 1898, when a pseudo-Baroque wing was added to the building.
These days the chateau of Vidim, surrounded with a buautiful park with number of valuable woody plants, is designed as an old people´s home.
References: Chronicle of the village Vidim
