The Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape (also Lednice–Valtice Area or Lednice–Valtice Complex, ) is a cultural-natural landscape complex of in the

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region (; , ; ), or just South Moravia, is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The region's capital is Brno, th ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It comprises the municipalities of Lednice,

Valtice Valtice (; ) is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,600 inhabitants. It is known as part of Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The historic town centre is ...

and

Hlohovec Hlohovec (, Hungarian ''Galgóc''), is a town in southwestern Slovakia, with a population of 21,508. Name The name comes from ''*Glogovec'', the Old Slavic name for a place densely overgrown by hawthorn. The Hungarian form ''Galgóc'' was ado ...

, and the rural area of

Břeclav Břeclav (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. Located at the Czech-Austrian state border and near the Czech–Slovak state border, it is an important railway hub. Administrative divis ...

. In 1996, the Lednice-Valtice Area was registered on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

because of its unique mix of

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

, Neoclassical, and neo-Gothic architecture, and its history as a cultural landscape designed intentionally by a single family. It is adjacent to the Pálava Landscape Protected Area (Pálava Biosphere Reserve), a biosphere reserve registered by UNESCO several years before. The close proximity of two

cultural landscape Cultural landscape is a term used in the fields of geography, ecology, and heritage studies, to describe a symbiosis of human activity and environment. As defined by the World Heritage Committee, it is the "cultural properties hatrepresent the c ...

s protected by UNESCO is unique.

History

The

House of Liechtenstein The House of Liechtenstein (), from which the principality takes its name, is the family which reigns by hereditary right over the principality of Liechtenstein. Only Dynasty#Dynast, dynastic members of the family are eligible to inherit the thro ...

acquired

(German name: Feldsberg) Castle in 1249, which marked the beginning of their settlement in the area. It remained the principal Liechtenstein residence for 700 years, until 1939 and World War II. Valtice Castle was expanded in late

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

in the first half of the 13th century, but was badly damaged in the

Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...

and later rebuilt by Charles I, Prince of Liechtenstein, in the

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

. From the 14th century, Lednice (German name: Eisgrub) was a fortified manor belonging to the Valtice estate and from 1680 it was expanded into a palace that was redesigned in a Tudor

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style (then: "Old English style") between 1846 and 1858 by Prince Aloys II.

17th–19th centuries

The Princes of Liechtenstein transformed their properties Feldsberg (Valtice) and Eisgrub (Lednice) into one large and designed private park between the 17th and 20th centuries. During the 19th century, the princes continued transforming the area as a large traditional English landscape park. Feldsberg was part of Austria until 1919, Eisgrub part of the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

, both member states of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

under the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

rule, with the Austrian-Bohemian border running through the park between the two castles. The 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain stipulated that the city of Feldsberg, which in 1910 was about 97% inhabited by German-speaking Lower Austrians, became part of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. The Baroque and neo-Gothic architecture of the chateaux are married with smaller buildings and a landscape that was fashioned according to the English principles of landscape architecture. In 1715 these two chateaux (castles) were connected by a 7 km (4.3 miles) long landscape avenue and road, later renamed for the poet Petr Bezruč, due to his poem Valčice describing a journey to Lednice after tasting vine in Valtice. Whilst both Lednice and Valtice have grown since then, and the road doesn't connect the chateaux as once intended, a large part of this avenue remains in use to this day. The Lednice Ponds are situated between the town of Valtice and villages of Lednice and Hlohovec; as are the ''Mlýnský'', ''Prostřední'', ''Hlohovecký'', and ''Nesyt'' Ponds. A substantial part of the cultural landscape complex is covered in

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

forests, known as the "Pine−wood" (''Boří les''), and in areas adjacent to the

Thaya The Thaya (, ) is a river in the Czech Republic and Austria, a right tributary of the Morava (river), Morava River. It flows through the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic and through Lower Austria in Austria. It is formed by the conflue ...

River with

riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, Sink (geography), sink, or reservoir. Due to the broad nature of the definitio ...

20th century

In 1918 the region became part of new

. The Liechtenstein family opposed the annexation of Czech territory into

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, and as a consequence their properties were confiscated by the Nazis, and the family then relocated to

Vaduz Vaduz (; or ; High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' ...

in 1939. After World War II the

Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...

resulted in the confiscation of all Liechtenstein property in Czechoslovakia, as the family is seen as German in nationality to this day by the Czech state. The family made several legal attempts for restitution of the properties, but the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

regime was not interested in restitution of property to exiled aristocracy. After the Czechoslovakian

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

in 1989, the Liechtenstein descendants again renewed attempts for restitution, which were repeatedly denied by the Czech state, the present day owner of the properties.

Features

The principal elements are: * Chateau Valtice (German: ''Schloss Feldsberg'') and its contiguous town of

* Lednice Castle (German: ''Schloss Eisgrub'') and its contiguous village of Lednice * The village of

Pavilions and follies

In addition to the castles, there are many large to small residential

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s located throughout the designed landscape, often serving as chateau or hunting lodges. * The Colonnade − ''Rajsna'' (German: ''Reistna'')
— a Neoclassical

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

on the top of a hill ridge above

(like a gloriette) from the 1810s to 1820s * Belvedere
— a belvedere landscape element. * Rendezvous (or Temple of Diana)
— a hunting lodge in a form of a Neoclassical

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

from the 1810s * St Hubert Chapel (''Kaple svatého Huberta'')
— a

column structure from the 1850s dedicated to the patron saint of hunters, situated in the Pine wood * Border House (''Hraniční zámeček'')
— a

Classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

chateau built in the 1820s directly on the former (until 1920) borderline between

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

and

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

* Temple of the Three Graces (''Tři Grácie'')
— a semicircle gallery with allegorical statues of Sciences and

Muses In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

and a statue of the Three Graces from the 1820s * Pond House (''Rybniční zámeček'')
— at the shore of one of the Lednice Ponds * Nový dvůr (German: ''Neuhof'', New Farm) — a Neoclassical

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

finished in 1809, originally used for

sheep husbandry Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat ( lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin ...

, nowadays for

horse breeding Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given Horse breed, breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired chara ...

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

Temple (''Apollónův chrám'')
— a Neoclassical hunting lodge from the 1810s, ashore of one of the Lednice Ponds * Hunting Lodge (''Lovecký zámeček'')
— a Neoclassical house from 1806 * John's Castle (''Janův hrad'' or ''Janohrad'')
— a Gothic Revival style

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

of "artificial ruins" (, ) in style of a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

, finished in 1810 * Minaret
— a Moorish Revival style "minaret"

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

high, located in the Lednice Castle garden (finished in 1804), that provides a view of the entire landscape. On clear days the Pálava Hills and Malé Karpaty Mountains can also be seen from the towers. * Obelisk
— an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

erected in memory of the peace

treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...

(1798), the last remaining of the many obelisks originally built by the Liechtensteins in the area. Zamek Pohansko 05

* Pohansko
— an Empire-style hunting lodge finished after 1812, it houses an exhibition of

Town Museum:
close to the lodge there are both an important archaeological site of

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

n remains and reconstructed parts of the

Czechoslovak border fortifications First Republic of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia built a system of border fortifications as well as some fortified defensive lines inland, from 1935 to 1938 as a defensive countermeasure against the rising threat of Nazi Germany. The objective of ...

* Lány
— an Empire-style hunting lodge from the beginning of the 19th century

Preservation

The garden follies and the conservatory of Lednice Park were listed in the 1998 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund, because of their deteriorating condition resulting from insufficient financial resources. The Fund had previously studied the preservation of Lednice and Valtice Castles, and after 1998 it helped fund restoration of the Valtice Rendezvous folly as a demonstration project with support from

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

. After the year-to-year tourist season ended in the Czech Republic, the castle was ranked as the most visited place in the country, as new attractions were added to the site.

Gallery

Zámek - Lednice 2.jpg, Lednice Castle Lednice-skleník2009a.jpg, Castle Greenhouse in Lednice Lednice interier skleniku.jpg, Interior of the greenhouse Zamek Lednice Morava 40.JPG, From the Lednice Castle garden Lednice riding hall and stables, Lednice, Czech Republic 01.jpg, Lednice Castle
Riding-Hall LednickeRybniky.jpg, The ''Prostřední'' (Middle) one of the Lednice Ponds Valtice castle courtyard.JPG, Valtice Castle Hlohovec cz 01.jpg, Border House Janův hrad (4).jpg, John's Castle Jadgschlösschen.jpg, Hunting Lodge

References

Sources

* Kordiovský, Emil – Klanicová Evženie (eds.), ''Město Břeclav'', Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost, Brno (2001). * Památkový ústav v Brně: text on the reverse of a tourist map, Shocart, Zlín (1998).

External links

UNESCO Czech heritage.org: Official Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape websiteWorld Monuments Fund.org: ''Conservation & Economic Enhancement Plan for Valtice Zamek & its Environs,'' 1993.

World Monuments Fund.org: ''Conservation & Economic Enhancement Plan for Lednice Zamek & its Environs,'' 1995.

Lednicko-valticky-areal.cz" Lednice-Valtice Area
�� {{DEFAULTSORT:Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape Cultural landscapes Buildings and structures in the South Moravian Region Castles in the South Moravian Region Continental gardens in the English Landscape Garden style Folly buildings Parks in the Czech Republic Geography of the South Moravian Region Tourist attractions in the South Moravian Region World Heritage Sites in the Czech Republic