Easter

Catalogue number	0677
Date of issue	23.3.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 50 stamps
Size of picture	23 x 30 mm
Graphic designer	Libuše and Jaromír Knotek

one of the Easter symbols - newly hatched chicks
Easter is a spring time festival in its origin. The originally Canaanite spring time festival obtained a completely new meaning some 3500 years ago when the Jews adopted and transformed it into their Pascha, commemorating the passover and exodus, or liberation of the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. Easter is also the central Christian religious feast, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an event believed by Christians to take place the third day after his crucifixion. Easter is a moveable feast. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. As such, the feast can be celebrated in March or April. The days preceding the Easter Monday have also their own names: Maundy (or Green in the Czech tradition) Thursday; Good (or Great in the Czech tradition) Friday; Holy (or White in the Czech tradition) Saturday, ended with the Easter Vigil starting after sundown on Holy Saturday and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter still enjoys much popularity in the Czech Republic. Ordinary people normally associate it with children who go carolling on Easter Monday and get decorated eggs, sweets and other treats.

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Year of the Rožmberks (Vilém and Petr Vok of Rožmberk)

Catalogue number	A0676
Date of issue	9.3.2011
Face value	49 CZK
Print sheets	-
Size of picture	120 x 110 mm
Graphic designer	Oldřich Kulhánek
Engraver	Miloš Ondráček

Petr Vok of Rožmberk (October 1st, 1539, Český Krumlov - November 6th, 1611, Třeboň) was the last member of the aristocratic family of Rožmberk (also known as Rosenberg). Living in the shadow of his older brother Vilém for more than fifty years, he publicly admitted that he suffered from the "younger, unwanted, and less able sibling syndrome". From his early life, Petr Vok loved learning, knowing and inventing things, as evidenced by his keen interest in science, literature, arts and culture in general. He sponsored local literature, theatre, education (Rožmberk School in Soběslav) and arts. The library he created belonged to the largest in Central Europe. His collection of artefacts, physical instruments and works of nature was comparable to those gathered by Rudolf II at Prague Castle. He transformed the castles in Bechyně and Třeboň into Renaissance mansions, and founded - and became the grand master of - the Order of Skull.
Although he ruled in a way similar to his brother Vilém's, both brothers had a different personality. Petr was a sensitive, open person, standing behind his decisions (this was clearly shown by his negative attitude toward the Habsburg dynasty, or his relationship with the Moravian Church). He also had a good sense of fairness. His marriage to the very young Kateřina of Ludanice (1580) remained childless, and Kateřina began suffering from an unknown mental illness, but she was well-looked after by her husband until her death. Nor did he impose excessive or new taxes on his subjects, despite his considerable debts. He looked after poor and sick people at both Bechyně and Třeboň estates. The poor from the town of Třeboň and the surrounding area were invited to Třeboň Castle for a free meal every day at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. He became a proficient manager of the Rožmberk estate in just a few years after his succession to power, twice preventing an imminent bankruptcy and division of the estate. The last of the Rožmberks was one of the leading figures in the 16th and 17th century Czech history.
Vilém of Rožmberk
In the 1580s, Vilém commissioned the construction of a Jesuit College in Český Krumlov and received the Order of Golden Fleece, the highest imperial order granted to Catholic aristocrats.
Although he married four times, he remained childless, and after his death the Rožmberk estate passed to Petr Vok of Rožmberk. Vilém of Rožmberk, helped by his chief manager Jakub Krčín of Jelčany, boosted the economic development of the estate. Krčín continued the pond building and fishing business set up in the Třeboň area by famous pond builder Štěpán Netolický, built crop and sheep farms, breweries, mills, silver mines, glass works. Vilém designed a project of transformation of the castle in Český Krumlov into a Renaissance chateau, worth of his position and power, and had the summer mansion Kratochvíle (Pastime in English) near Netolice built. The first project of reconstruction of Třeboň Castle into a Renaissance mansion after the devastating fire in 1562 was also completed during Vilém's rule.
Vilém hosted a large number of musicians, composers, painters, alchemists, such as Antonín Michael of Ebbersbach, Edward Kelly, Johny Dee, at Třeboň Castle.

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Folk architecture - E

Catalogue number	0675
Date of issue	23.2.2011
Face value	20 CZK
Print sheets	á 100 stamps
Size of picture	19 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kavan
Engraver	Bohumil Sneider

As part of the national cultural heritage, folk architecture has always been, and hopefully still remains an inspiration for the contemporary people. It can teach the contemporary architects a lesson in the sensitive urbanisation approach to the surrounding landscape; reasonable proportions; frugal use of materials; suitable design for all required functions of a countryside building; high aesthetic level. A few simplified examples can include the characteristic frame structures common in the West Bohemian border region; the two-storey half-timbered buildings with richly decorated gables typical of North Bohemia; the mostly single-storey Central Bohemian chamber structures built of wood, stone or bricks; the wide-front mountain house of East Bohemia and West Moravia; the white farm buildings in the South Bohemian Blatensko region famous for their gables with a multitude of shapes; the longitudinal grid of buildings in South Moravia, distantly echoing the Roman portico, with hand painted porches and separate wine cellars; the half-timbered cottages in the North Moravian Wallachian region, etc. Each of the basic types always comes with several different examples, not to speak about different combined influences and other interesting aspects.
The E-stamp features a North Bohemian gable and a Central Bohemian gate (front), combined with a Wallachian cottage and a South Bohemian gable from the Tábor region (back).

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Folk architecture - A

Catalogue number	0674
Date of issue	23.2.2011
Face value	A
Print sheets	á 100 stamps
Size of picture	19 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kavan
Engraver	Bohumil Sneider

A simplified general kind of summary of nationwide folk architecture, featuring characteristic gables and gates across all regions of the Czech Republic: a South Bohemian gable from the Blatensko region (front); a North Bohemian gable (left); a gable shutter common in North Bohemia as well as North Moravia (right); a West Bohemian half-timbered gable (back).
Both architectural landmarks built in major styles and exceptionally rich countryside architecture abound in the Czech Republic. Throughout the history, the regional and natural diversity contributed to the creation of numerous specific areas, both in terms of the technology and aesthetics used in the structure of folk dwellings. Its morphology lets us feel the remarkable afterglow of famous epochs of art combined with an ancient tradition, the latter endowing the ordinary outbuildings with as much practicality as possible.
Thanks to the historical circumstances, the countryside can offer a large number of superb examples of folk architecture preserved on their original site. Such buildings make a significant part of our everyday cultural life; as such, they should rightly get more attention from the general public. The fact that they are mostly located outside any protected or museum area means that they frequently face the risks associated with lack of knowledge or sensitivity. The lack of an official protection - with the exception of several protected areas declared by the government - has fortunately been compensated for by numerous examples of an excellent care provided by their owners holding them as a summer house for hobby. This natural spontaneous protection would, like the institutional one, deserve certain support, at least of a moral kind.
The natural, material and cultural conditions in the small territory of the Czech Republic created locations with typically autonomous features of folk architecture. The intimate space of a stamp face might be sufficient to feature, e.g. a comprehensive series of the different forms of gables.

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20 Years of the Visegrad Group

Catalogue number	0673
Date of issue	11.2.2011
Face value	20 CZK
Print sheets	8 pcs
Size of picture	44.4 x 26.5 mm
Graphic designer	Barnabás Baticz

This year's issue is a stamp designed by the four member countries of the Visegrad Group (also known as the Visegrad Four, or V4) on the Slovak Ambassador to V4's initiative, backed by the Slovak Post, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of establishment of this alliance of four Central European countries, i.e. Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The idea of the V4 alliance derives from a meeting of the Czech, Polish and Hungarian rulers in Visegrad, Hungary in 1335. Charles I of Hungary, Czech king John of Luxembourg, and Casimir III of Poland entered into an agreement of a close cooperation in political and commercial affairs, and of eternal friendship. This agreement inspired the next successful Central European initiative established 656 years later.
The present group was formed on February 15th, 1991 (ten days before the end of the Warsaw Pact) at a meeting of Hungarian Prime Minister József Antall, Czechoslovak President Václav Havel, and Polish President Lech Wałęsa in Visegrad, as the so-called Visegrad Three group. The politicians signed a declaration of a close cooperation of the three Central European countries on their way to the European integration. The countries saw their cooperation in the era after the collapse of the Communist regime as vital for transition from the totalitarian system to a free, plural and democratic society. The group became known as the Visegrad Four (V4) after the split of Czechoslovakia into the successor states Czech Republic and Slovakia; both states became members of the alliance.
Three of the V4 member countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, joined the NATO in 1999. Slovakia followed in 2004. The foreign policy activities of the four countries further merged after their accession to the European Union on May 1st, 2004. The group's core activities, including programmes under the Regional Partnership with Austria and Slovenia or the V4+ concept with other Central and Eastern European countries, focus on cooperation and stability in a broader Central European region.

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The Ctyrlistek Comics - Pinda

Catalogue number	0672 or VZS05 (booklet)
Date of issue	9.2.2011
Face value	A
Print sheets	á 10 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	23 x 31 mm
Graphic designer	Jaroslav Nemecek

The "Ctyrlistek - Pinda" stamp features Pinda the Rabbit as a painter with brushes in his hand and a box of water paints. Piňda is the next character of the comic book Ctyrlistek appearing on a stamp. The last of the Ctyrlistek boys, Bobik the Pig, is to follow soon.

A stamp identified with the letter A corresponding to the price of Ordinary Letter - Standard up to 50 g in domestic service.

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Cubist Architecture - Black Madonna House Prague

Catalogue number	0671
Date of issue	9.2.2011
Face value	14 CZK
Print sheets	8 pcs
Size of picture	40 x 26 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kavan
Engraver	Vaclav Fajt

The Black Madonna House is a masterpiece of Czech Cubist architecture. The house, located at Prague's Old Town between Celetna street and Ovocny trh square, was designed by Czech architect Josef Gocar and built in 1911-12. The house, named after the Baroque statue of Black Madonna in an alcove on the facade, hosts the Prague's National Gallery Museum of Czech Cubism.
The Black Madonna House was built on the site of the former Baroque Granovsky house, whose name it adopted, for merchant František Herbst who wanted to use it as a department store. The interesting thing is that Gocar's first design was refused by the Prague City Hall due to a lack of harmony with the historical neighbourhood. Gočár responded to the allegations by adding further Cubist features, such as more pronounced Cubist entrance or balcony railing.
Gocar originally planned a wine shop in the basement, café on the ground floor, textile store on the first floor, office space on the third and residential space on the fourth floors. All interior decorations, including furniture and other details, had also a Cubist design.
Allegations of unfashionableness hunted the building since its creation, leading to the closure of the café as early as the 1920s. The ongoing trend of transformation of the house culminated in the 1950s when the entire house became an office building used by exhibition firm Výstavnictví.
During an early 1990s reconstruction project, led by Karel Prager, the house was returned to its original shape, old paintings were removed and a missing glass roof section completed to match Gocar's initial design. The house was reopened to the public at a ceremony, attended by former President Vaclav Havel, October 18th, 1994, and became the venue of the Czech Museum of Fine Arts, with a permanent exhibition of Czech Cubism in a part of the house. A replica statue, carved of wood with multicolour finish, of the original Black Madonna was mounted in an alcove on the facade in 2000. The house was added to the National Heritage List as a cultural site in 2010.
The museum removed its collections in 2002, but the Czech Cubism exhibition was reopened in 2003 as part of the National Gallery's activities. The Grand Café Orient on the first floor was reopened in 2005.
The Czech Ministry of Culture used the house in the early 1990s to secure a credit, worth some CZK 300 million, for launching a lottery (so-called "Ceska lotynka"). The project failed, and the house faced a threat of becoming a bank property. The government overcame the situation by borrowing a loan through its agency, the State Culture Fund, from another bank (Komercni banka) to repay the original credit.

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Beauties of Our Country: Cheb 950 Years

Catalogue number	0670
Date of issue	9.2.2011
Face value	12 CZK
Print sheets	8 pcs
Size of picture	26 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kavan
Engraver	Vaclav Fajt

Cheb is the ancient capital of the westernmost region of the Czech Republic. The first known settlement in the vast area on the banks of the upper Ohře river was a Slavic stronghold, built as early as the 9th to 11th centuries on a hill overlooking the river. The first mention of Cheb dates back to 1061; it is the oldest evidence of the ongoing medieval colonization of the area surrounding Cheb during which the German colonists pushed the original Slavic settlers back to the hinterland.
The first castle made of stone was built around 1125 by the Vohburg family, and rebuilt after 1167 by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in the typical Paletinate style. A settlement, first mentioned in 1203 as Cheb, grew at the foothill outside the castle walls. The century-long disputes between Czech and German rulers about the ownership of the Cheb region ended in 1314 with the victory of Czech king John of Luxembourg. In the 14th century Cheb, with an exclusive location on a major Czech-German trade route, developed into a strong town state with an army of its own, gradually gaining control over the surrounding region.
During the Thirty Years' War, Albrecht von Wallenstein, chief commander of the Imperial Army, and his chief officers and secretary, were killed in Cheb. The town suffered severely during the era.
In the period after the war, Cheb was to become a vast Baroque stronghold, but the project failed and was cancelled in 1809. After the construction of a railway station, the town was transformed into a major railway hub. The 20th century Cheb was strongly affected by the events of both world wars and their consequences. The historical centre underwent a large reconstruction (1956-69), and Cheb became a town conservation area in 1981.
The town highlights include the Castle and the Black Tower, built in the Romanesque style. The 18.5 meters high tower was built of bossed blocks of black ash rock. The most valuable and best preserved building in the castle area is the Chapel of SS Erhard and St Ursula in the Romanesque and Gothic styles, with a unique interior architecture. Each of the two floors of the chapel boasts a different building style.
The main square ("namesti Jiriho z Podebrad") of the town, dedicated to Czech king George of Poděbrady, has a selection of architectural treats. A bunch of originally 11 medieval houses called the Block ("Spalicek"), was gradually erected in its lower part, starting from the 13th century. The magnificent St Nicholas Church, built in 1220-30, is close to the square. The star attractions of Cheb monasteries are St Francis monastery and St Clare monastery. The Monastery of St Francis, originally Friars Minor, was built in the early 13th century and rebuilt in 1275-85, as a complex of double-floor buildings, with a tall square tower from the time of Charles IV. The cloisters (1310-30) with window tracery are the town's Gothic highlight. Just across a small square called Frantiskanske namesti stands St Clare monastery (1264, rebuilt in the early 18th century into a Baroque shape) and church. The church (1708-11), a fine high-Baroque piece by Christoph Dientzenhofer, has been used by the town gallery as a concert and exhibition hall since 1975. St Wenceslas Church, on the site of the oldest local Slavic settlement close to the Janske namesti square, once operated as a Dominican monastery. St Bartholomew Church (1414) near a bridge across the Ohře is an atrial Gothic building with a ceiling resting on a single pillar.

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Jiří Melantrich of Aventinum (1511-1580)

Catalogue number	0669
Date of issue	9.2.2011
Face value	30 CZK
Print sheets	50 stamps
Size of picture	23 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Pavel Hrach
Engraver	Bohumil Sneider

Jiří Melantrich (Rožďalovský) of Aventinum (or Aventýn; born Jiří Černý Rožďalovický; c. 1511, Rožďalovice -November 19th, 1580, Prague) was an important Czech Renaissance printer and publisher.
It is not clear when Jiřík Černý, later known as Jiří Melantrich of Aventinum, was born. The alleged year of 1511 is based on the information from a calendar published by Daniel Adam of Veleslavín according to which Melantrich died at 69. He came from a non-wealthy Ultraquist family. Hardly anything is known of his early life. The first mention of him is from 1534, the year he became a bachelor at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague.
He set up a printing shop, and gradually started to flourish and gain European significance. The Melantrich's Bible (so-called "Melantriška"), issued by him in four or five editions, was at the core of his activities as publisher, although he published also three editions of the New Testament as well as a large number of other religious and moral books (e.g. works by Desiderius Erasmus) for both Catholic and Lutheran or Ultraquist readers, Czech Renaissance Humanist literature or collections of Latin poems. The publication of a Czech and later also German edition of Mattioli's Herbarium, resulting from Melantrich cooperation with famous Italian physician and botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, gained European importance. Other of his publications included all kinds of handbooks and dictionaries, acts of Parliament and other legal literature, as well as inexpensive amusing books for ordinary people.
Melantrich also served as the Prague's Old Town councillor. He was raised to the rank of nobleman and granted a single coat of arms in 1557. Throughout his life Melantrich was known as a person educated in the spirit of Renaissance Humanism, an Ultraquist influenced by Lutheranism, who tolerated Catholicism. After he died in 1580, his son-in-law Daniel Adam of Veleslavín took over the Melantrich publishing house and continued its operations.

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Personalities - Famous Czechs: St Agnes of Bohemia (1211-1282)

Catalogue number	0668
Date of issue	20.1.2011
Face value	12 CZK
Print sheets	50 stamps
Size of picture	23 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Renata Fucikova
Engraver	Jaroslav Tvrdon

St Agnes of Bohemia (c. 1211 - March 6th, 1282), Czech princess and abbess of the Convent of St Francis in Prague, was the youngest daughter of Czech king Premysl Ottokar I and Constance of Hungary. When she was three years old, she and her sister Anna were entrusted to the Cistercian order in Trzebnica and Doksany to be educated. At that time she was probably engaged to Konrad, son of duke Henry I the Bearded of Silesia and his wife Hedwig. Konrad later died and both sisters returned back to Prague. At the age of eight, Agnes was engaged by her father Premysl Ottokar I, who wished to establish a relationship with the Hohenstaufen family, to Henry, son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (later Henry VII of Germany). For the next six years Agnes was sent to the court of Leopold VI of Babenberg to continue her education. But Leopold managed to secure Henry for his own daughter Margaret, and the fourteen-year-old Agnes returned back to Prague again. Her father then planned for her to marry Henry III of England. Henry's delegation was welcomed at Prague Castle a year after her return from Babenberg and Agnes was engaged to Henry, but Henry broke the engagement in 1229. Henry VII of Germany, at the time already married to Margaret of Babenberg, then showed interest in Agnes again. The last suitor was Henry's father Frederick II, but Agnes, who was then free to decide as her father already died and her brother Wenceslaus I loved her, rejected him.
With the help of her brother Wenceslaus I, Agnes founded the Hospital of St Francis in Prague (1232) and two convents where the Franciscan friars and Clare nuns who worked at the hospital resided. She joined the Prague Clares in 1234 as their abbess. She also contributed to the promotion of the Franciscan brotherhood working at the hospital as an individual order, the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, based on a strict compliance with the Franciscan rules, although her first attempt in 1237 failed. In 1238 she gave up the office of abbess of the Prague Clares, the office remaining vacant until her death.
Agnes played an active role in the social life of her time. Her contribution to the conciliation between Wenceslaus I and his son Premysl was vital. During a controversy between her nephew Premysl Ottokar II and the papal protégé Rudolf I of Habsburg, Agnes clearly took the side of her family when she accepted Premysl's daughter Kunhuta under the roof of the convent in 1277 and denounced the pope's anathema placed on Premysl by asking the nuns to pray for Přemysl during his war campaign against Rudolf before the battle on the Moravia Field.
Agnes remained highly active even prior to her death, which occurred at the then venerable age of 71 years. Her famous charitable works and involvement in the country's affairs gave rise to numerous legends emerging immediately after her death. Although the early attempts at canonization of this pioneer of care for the poor and hospital care in the Czech lands made by Elisabeth of Bohemia and her son Charles IV failed, Agnes was beatified in 1874 and later, on November 12th, 1989, formally canonized.

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The Tradition of Czech Stamp Production

Catalogue number	0667
Date of issue	20.1.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	30 stamps
Size of picture	40 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Bedrich Housa

The 2011 issue in the series Tradition of Czech Stamp Design is a single-colour stamp, printed by the rotary recess method, which first appeared on the "Mail Coach on Charles Bridge" envelope commemorating the exhibition of specialised branches of the Union of Czechoslovak Philatelists Prague 1966. The stamp was originally designed and engraved by Josef Hercik. Bedrich Housa is the author of the current engraved version.
Josef Hercik (March 22nd, 1922, Uhersky Brod - July 9th, 1999, Prague) was one of the leading Czech engravers in the post-World War II era, mainly due to the large number of national and international awards he received for his contribution to the art of engraving in stamp design. As the author of more than 400 stamp engravings, Josef Hercik managed to overcome even Jindra Schmidt and became the most prolific Czechoslovak engraver.
Josef Herčík's started his art career in the almost forgotten craft of gunstock engraving in the arm producing firm Zbrojovka Uherský Brod. He moved to Prague in 1940 where he also married. After the end of the war he was admitted to the College of Arts in Prague. The education opened him a broader way to graphic design. Although mainly recognized as a stamp engraver, he also authored a large spectrum of other graphic works, such as drawings, book covers and illustrations, bibliophilic works. His engravings for the 1958 edition of Arthur Rimbaud's "Le bateau ivre", designed by painter František Tichý, was the first work that made him publicly visible. His cooperation with graphic designer Václav Sivko, which started at the same time, introduced him to stamp engraving; Herčík's first stamp engravings followed Sivka's designs used for the PRAGA 1962 exhibition, although his first "real" stamp engravings featuring two insect motifs appeared later.
Herčík worked mainly for the Czechoslovak stamp design, but several of his works became also internationally renowned. He engraved an extensive series of facsimiles of famous stamps, e.g. the Blue Mauritius, for the German philatelic firm Hermann Sieger, as well as a few stamps for other postal administrations, such as Monaco or the United Nations.
Herčík covered also other areas of graphic design, such as free or heraldic graphics. As a heraldic designer he was even commissioned to design and engrave almost all Czechoslovak issues including heraldry of Czech or Slovak towns.
Josef Herčík and his wife Helena remained very active and enterprising in the graphic arts industry even in old age. The printing firm "1. ceska graficka spolecnost", set up by them and their son Josef Hercik Jr.'s family in the 1990s, soon attracted major printing and graphic contracts from around the world.

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Census

Catalogue number	0666
Date of issue	5.1.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 50 pcs of stamps
Size of picture	40 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kolar

The Czech government has been preparing a national census of population and dwellings in the Czech Republic that is to be conducted officially at midnight March 25th-26th. Parallel 2011 national censuses are to be taken in all EU countries. The 2011 census is expected to include a number of new features, based on the previous experience and developments in information technology, according to the Czech Statistical Office.
Registered partnership is one of the new questions in the census questionnaire, while questions about household amenities, income and expenditure will be missing - the only details important for the Czech Statistical Office are the availability of a personal computer and access to the Internet.
For the first time ever, those respondents who have set up an official data mail box will be able to complete the census questionnaire online.
95 per cent of the census collectors will be employees of the Czech Post. Legal entities will receive the questionnaire through data mail boxes, although a call centre will be set up to answer queries and solve potential problems during the real collection time.
A trial census with 0.5% of the national population was conducted between April 5th and May 7th, 2010, testing all necessary processes before the real 2011 census. The organizers found that 6.4% of the respondents used the chance to complete the questionnaire online. A minicensus, run in the autumn 2010, offered pupils and students a possibility to process the collected statistical data.
Regular censuses in the territory of the Czech Republic have been organized since 1869.

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Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761 - 1838)

Catalogue number	A0665
Date of issue	5.1.2011
Face value	43 CZK
Print sheets	A 1
Size of picture	26 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Oldrich Kulhanek
Engraver	Wolfgang Mauer

Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (born on January 6th, 1761 at Brezina Castle) was one of the leading scientists of the first half of the 19th century, with a special interest in botany, geology and paleontology, and is considered as one of the founders of paleobotany. He is the author of an extensive and precious collection of minerals, fossils and herbs that became the core collection of the National Museum in Prague, founded by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg.
Kaspar Maria was born the eighth and last child (third son) of Johann von Sternberg and Anna Josefa Krakovská of Kolovraty, into a not wealthy Czech aristocratic family of Sternbergs. A philosophy graduate from the Prague University, he studied theology in Rome and received lower ordination. Inspired by the newly founded Regensburg Botanical Society (1790), he became a keen naturalist, contributor to the Society's Botanisches Taschenbuch and one of its ordinary members (1800). His first private botany teacher was Charles Jeunet Duval. After his failure as a church diplomat to Paris (1804-05), he gave up his career in the church and moved to Regensburg to work as director of local scientific institutes. The Regensburg Botanical Garden, set up by Sternberg, was destroyed during a 1809 war campaign.
During his French stay, Sternberg was introduced to Alexander von Humboldt and a group of elite French paleontologists and botanists. His book, A Survey of Saxifrages in Pictures (published in Latin) was based on materials collected during his scientific trips, especially to the Bavarian Alps. Shortly after the publication, he inherited the West Bohemian Radnice estate from his older brother and devoted scientist Joachim. He set up a botanical garden in Radnice and was a frequent visitor to the newly opened coal mines in the neighboorhood where he searched for primordial plant fossils. After his A Treatise on Botany in Bohemia (originally published in German and soon after also in Czech), he (together with Karel Bořivoj Presl and Augustin Corda) co-authored the 1820-38 An Attempt at Geographical and Botanical Description of Primordial Plants. He also became one of the key shareholders in Prague Railway Company (1825) authorised to build the Prague-Lány Horse-Drawn Railway (1827).
Kaspar Maria von Sternberg was elected President of the Society for the Establishment of the Czech National Museum in 1818, and bequeathed his library and paleontological collection to the museum. He died at Breznice Castle on December 20th, 1838 as the last male heir of the Leopoldine branch of the Sternberg family.

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