In 1811 Josef Šolc, a farmer, built a two-storey timbered house with a balcony on the outskirts of Sobotka, today known as the Šolc Grange House (Šolcův statek). The house then became the main building of an extensive grange. In 1838 Václav Šolc, the author of a collection of poems entitled Prvosenky (Primroses), was born and in 1871 died there. In the 1930s, after numerous changes of ownership, the Šolc Grange House finally passed into the hands of the Samšiňák family. After the 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia the family property was confiscated. It was only in 1990 that Karel Samšiňák, a naturalist and great art connoisseur, succeeded in restituting the property, but he was allowed to live here from the 1971. In 1974 he managed to turn the grange house into a gallery which housed exhibitions by outstanding Czech artists as well as foreign guests. In 2005, at the end of his life, K. Samšiňák decided to hand the property over to his son Jan Samšiňák, who started a vast renovation project with a view to retaining the original cultural purpose of the building. In 2009, after the renovation was finished, the original gallery was named Karel Samšiňák Gallery after its founder. At the same time the second exhibition area, called Lapidarium, was established in the adjacent building of a former stable, at Karel Samšiňák's desire. Today, exhibitions and other cultural events at the Šolcův statek are organised by present owner of the building, Jan Samšiňák.

Exhibition programme: see main page