Lednice Castle, Liechten­steins, Czech heritage - guest writer

I left Czechoslovakia at 3.5 years old, and remembered almost nothing. But my mother thought her homeland was the most beautiful country anywhere. So tours back home as an adult were very impressive, starting with Lednice. 

Lednice, in English Tudor neo-Gothic style 

Lednice traced its Czech history back to a 1222 document of Bishop Rob­ert when it was a Gothic fort. The Gothic fortress stood ab­ove the town of Dyjí which guarded the river crossing and the trade route. Later Led­nice manor be­came the pr­op­er­ty of the noble Licht­enst­ein family from Styria in SE Aus­tria; it stayed in their ownership for until 1945, when Lednice castle became a state prop­erty. In the SE corner of the Czech Republic, it is visited by c400,000 guests annually. La­ter the Liech­tenst­eins also built Valtice Chat­eau, 8 ks away on a fine road. The two chateaus area is a very large land­scape c300+ square ks.

During the C16th, Lednice became a Renaissance chateau. Karel Liechten­stein served as the representative leader of Moravia in the early C17th and was given the title of Prince. When the Czech Protestant nobility rebelled against the Catholic Habsburgs, the Liecht­ensteins supported the monarchy, so they were not punished when the Protestants lost. The family became very wealthy via planned marriages and the careful pur­chase of confiscated prop­erty after the Battle of Bílá Hora 1620, becoming the richest noble clan in all of Moravia.

The family demol­ished the original medieval water fortress and ord­er­ed a rebuilt Ren­aissance castle in its place, which was later mod­ified in the Baroque style, and a large park. The current neo-Gothic design was from 1846–58, designed by court architect Jiří Wingelmül­l­er and used as the Liechtensteins’ summer residence.

Spindle shaped staircase, leading from the library

built in 1840s. Facebook

Library

Histouring

The castle’s most fascinating part is the spindle-shaped stair­case. It came from a single oak tree, comm­issioned by Liech­tenstein’s Prince Alois II, a fan of English Gothic, and was created by the Viennese firm of Karl Leister during the castle’s neo-Gothic recons­truction, 1851. The car­v­ed det­ails of the spiral stairs have plant and animal mot­ifs, based on Bur­gun­d­ian and En­glish Gothic. The staircase goes up to the castle library where the wood panelling is very special, accompanied by dark blue wall­paper. Even the woodwork on the door is exquisite.

The Chinese Lounge is a delight, with royal blue furn­ishings and a Ch­inese lantern. Its walls are covered with ear­ly C18th hand-painted wall­paper made from Chinese pap­er, showing an idyllic landscape with bright fig­ures. The Red Smoking Lounge has wine-red wallpaper and lavish furn­ishings, including stunning chandeliers. The Family Hall displays simple elegance, including a fine porcel­ain col­lection. See the elegant desk in Princess Frances’ Bedroom and great Neo-Gothic chairs with complex back pat­terns. The Tur­quoise Hall, named for its turquoise wall­paper, feat­ures carved wood décor as well as a superb chandelier. The Liecht­en­st­einers loved to travel, to Italy, France and Africa, as seen in the ob­jects they brought back. Bec­ause the family rem­oved many furn­ish­ings in WW2, most of the original interior décor was sal­vag­ed.

 Tur­quoise Hall with wallpaper and carved wooden decor

Blue Room

Histouring

Around the castle and in the Chateau Park, the family commis­s­ioned many romantic buildings that fitted into the landscape, including Temple of Three Graces, Temple of Apollo, a romantic 1817 chateau; Reis­tna and Ch­apel of St Hub­ert. The 92 ms long, cast-iron green­house with arched roof was progressive when it was built in the mid C19th and still tourable. Valtice’s chapel is a fine example of Central European Baroque design.

Another park highlight is a Moorish-style Minaret (1797-1804), designed by Josef Hardtmuth and dec­orated with Arabic inscript­ions. It includes lower arcades, 8 oriental rooms on the upper floor, and a 3-storey tower and gallery serving as a site for the Lie­chtenst­einer coll­ect­ions from their trav­els. A helmet and half-moon crown the breath­­taking structure, the ?oldest pres­erved observ­ation tower in the Czech Repub­lic. Steps lead up 3 storeys, making it possible to look right round from the Mina­ret top, en­joying the beauty of the park and lakes with remote is­lets.

Sailing through the Lednice estate was noted with the disc­ov­ery of gondola drawings on which the Liechtensteiners once sailed on the Dyja River. After the modernising of the channel, the first ships could sail. A modern com­pany has now continued the gondola legacy of the Liechtensteiners. Travel the Dyja River on 2 routes: one fr­om the Moorish Water­works to the Minaret (25 mins) and one from the Min­aret to Jan Castle (40 mins). Jan’s Castle is a romantic castle whose artif­ic­ial ruins were created in the early C19th to Josef Hardt­­muth’s plans. 

Greenhouse and gardens

Minaret across the park and lake

Visit World Heritage

Lednice was recognised in 1996 by UNESCO on its World Cultural and National Heritage List. The basic tour goes around the Representative rooms while further options are the Private Princely apartments, Children's room & Museum of marionettes. All tours offer visitors a great experience.

Czech Republic map

with Lednice on the southern border near Austria

CZ Euro Tour

By Czech born Joseph