Czech Castles, Chateaux and Villas

Located in the beautiful wine country of southern Moravia, close to the Austrian border and situated in the UNESCO-protected Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is the gorgeous Lednice Chateau.

This grand architectural gem is a great place to visit in Moravia as it features lovely historical interiors and a surrounding English style park that is simply put, huge – it is in fact, the largest English style park in the Czech Republic. The chateau was constructed during the Renaissance time period under the royal Liechtenstein family, who however had laid claims in Lednice since the Middle Ages. The chateau was used as the family villa at first and then as a swanky summer residence for the Liechtenstein Princes in the 17th century. The current look of the neo Gothic style of the chateau is due to a reconstruction from 1846 – 1858 when Viennese architect Jiří Wingolmuller and his successor Jan Heidrich changed the style of the structure. The neo Gothic renovation created Oriel windows, portals, spouts and battlements, gorgeous interiors with bright turquoise and red color schemes, and carved wooden elements such as coffered ceilings and carved spiral staircases. In the popular park you will find ponds, greenhouses, temples, a scottish “ruin” (created to look like a romantic ruin), and even a minaret, which was at the time (when it was built, 1797 – 1804) the tallest minaret outside of the Muslim world.

Photos: Dolce Vita