What’s New with Castles and Châteaux

Renovated Vrchnostenská Zahrada garden at Pernštejn Castle

Pernštejn Castle can be found in the Vysočina region near Brno. It is a beautiful and well-preserved monument representing late Gothic architecture. And this year, you have one more reason to come here. Renovated Enlightenment period gardens are opening on the slopes below Pernštejn Castle. You can walk through the garden as it was shortly after 1800 and, at the same time, you have the opportunity to see the newly opened Journeys to the Lands of Silence: Moravian Aristocratic Gardens in the Age of Enlightenment exhibition. The exhibition focuses on the creation of the so-called Anglo-Chinese gardens, which replaced French-style Gardens in Central Europe from the second half of the 18th century. The garden has been restored in recent years, so do not expect centuries-old oaks and romantic overgrown nooks and crannies. It will most likely be our grandchildren who will be able to admire them. Still, this garden is worth a visit!

Opened Castle Vimperk

A beautiful castle has stood over the Šumava town of Vimperk in southern Bohemia for centuries, but it was never open to the public. That is changing this year. The restoration of the Upper Castle is slowly coming to an end, and the Museum of the Vimperk Region and a new visitor tour are opening here, which will introduce you to the aristocratic Novohradský z Kolovrat family. Modernised exhibitions on book printing and glassmaking will complement the rooms dedicated to the Golden Trail, hunting, sports and tourism, or to Šumava and Vimperk in fine arts.

Reconstruction of Veltrusy Mansion

Around the middle of summer, the main building of the Veltrusy Mansion in Central Bohemia also opens, which has undergone demanding renovation works after being hit by floods. Almost 2,000 items of furniture, including rare paper and hand-painted silk wallpaper, have been restored and preserved. The sala terrena and the main staircase to the mansion were also restored. As part of the renovation works, new sightseeing tours will be made available, including an interactive children's workshop. And what visitor tours are waiting for you again? For instance, one called Golden Times in the Service of the Empress, which will, among other things, introduce you to the Salon of Maria Theresa, in which she slept. Another tour, called The Count's Family Life, will take you through the private rooms of Count Chotek and his older children. You will be transported to a time between 1820 and 1860. The Castle Laboratory will also become a part of the castle's sightseeing tours. In this multimedia and educational workshop, you will learn why and how to take care of old buildings and their furnishings. You will look under the cover of the day-to-day operation of this monument, get acquainted with the history of the restoration of monuments and try out the work of a researcher, archaeologist or renovator.


 

Renovated farmstead in Plzeň

You can find farmstead U Matoušů in Plzeň in western Bohemia. And right between the apartment buildings, which today stand on the former fields of the farm. This year the entire complex, which has been undergoing an overall renovation for the last two years, will for the first time be accessible. All five buildings were repaired, including the courtyard and orchard. There is an exhibition in the residential building, which, accompanied by a guide, shows the daily life of a peasant family in the Plzeň region at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The granary is home to the freely accessible The Way of the Grain exhibition.

New visitor tours at Litomyšl Castle

Eastern Bohemia hides one UNESCO gem, and that is the castle in Litomyšl. The whole castle hillock, but especially the castle, is worth a visit and will take your breath away. A few new updates await you during its tour this year. The first new visitor tour is called The Castle in Times of the Valdštejns. This tour covers the period from the construction of the Castle by the Pernštejn family to other owners, the Valdštejn-Vartenberk family, i.e., until the middle of the 19th century. Another newly opened tour is called The Castle during the Thurn-Taxis period and includes the historical period from 1855 to 1945. The tour reminds of the last aristocratic owners of the castle, the Thurn-Taxis family, to whom it served as a summer residence.

Jurkovič Palace on Kunětice Mountain

In eastern Bohemia, you will also find the late Gothic Kunětice Mountain Castle of the famous Pernštejn family. The newly renovated western Jurkovič Palace opens here. The public will have the opportunity to visit this part of the castle for the very first time. As part of the Kunětická Hora project by Dušan Jurkovič – a Poet of Wood, the 6th gate and the First Republic wooden porch were also restored. The solution is based on preserved historical documentation, which in its implementation in the first half of the last century followed the project of the architect Dušan Jurkovič. Please note, however, that the castle palace and chapel are closed to the public due to the ongoing renovation works to the monument.

A novelty of Vranov nad Dyjí Castle

This Moravian castle in Vranov nad Dyjí rises above the Dyje River and offers incredible views. And you can now enjoy them even more. The new visitor tour will take you to the medieval watchtower, which measures 24 metres. The new metal construction of the viewing platform provides a beautiful view of the surrounding area, i.e., not only the neighbouring castle roofs, access bridge, gardens and chapel, but also the meander of the river and the town below the castle.

Season’s theme: Year of Enlightenment nobility

The Enlightenment, ― a period of innovative thought in the mid-18th century, is considered the definitive end of the Middle Ages. Thanks to Enlightenment, the idea of ​​freedom critical thinking, and the desire to change a centuries-old stagnant European society for the better was born. New stimuli, coming to Central Europe, including the territory of today's Czech Republic, from the developed countries of Western Europe, first influenced the educated nobility. Science and culture developed, and ordinary people began to gain their civil rights. And this period is at the centre of attention in this year's special exhibitions in many Czech monuments. The thread of Enlightenment is intertwined with the gardens of Pernštejn Castle, which are restored in the original form of the Enlightenment period and embody the school of thought that began to search for landscapes of silence. You can also learn of the ideas of Enlightenment at the exhibition at the castle in Lednice, Jindřichův Hradec and Slatiňany, titled Memories of a Black and White World: Africans in the Habsburg Monarchy. The exhibition seeks to recall that it was in times of Enlightenment that seemingly modern themes such as freedom, civil rights and racism arose, which fundamentally affect our society to this day.