Rococo Wallpapers with Floral Motifs – Music Salon

The wallpapers in the Music Salon were probably removed during the refurbishment undertaken before Trakošćan Castle opened as a museum.

A photograph published in the magazine Svijet in 1935 records the room while the paper was still in place, showing the pattern across the full height of the walls and its relation to the panelling and furnishings.

The walls had later been painted blue with floral shablon and with the paint based on chalck. Archived fragments were photographed with a colour reference target placed in the same plane and lighting, so that the colours could be recorded as measurable values. Readings were taken from protected areas that had not been exposed to light, since the visible surfaces had faded.

Analysis of the paint layers identified barium white and, in two samples, calcium oxalate – a compound formed by the ageing of organic material which indicate that the fragments had undergone chemical change over time. The reconstructed pattern was refined through numbered trial prints compared with the original fragments under controlled lighting. Once installed, its acanthus motifs harmonised with those on the castle’s oldest tiled stove and the carved and gilded mirror frames, restoring the visual coherence of the Music Salon.