Castle Lednice — Attraction in okres Břeclav

Visit the beauty of Lednice Castle, which is part of the Lednice-Valtice area. Prince Alois II of Lichteinstein had Lednice rebuilt into a representative summer residence in the spirit of English Gothic. Today the whole Lednice-Valtice area is part of UNESCO. For holding grand meetings of the European nobility, representative halls with carved ceilings, wooden wall panelling and exquisite furnishings were used, which are unparalleled in Europe. The first historical record of the site dates back to 1222. At that time there was most probably a Gothic fortress with a manor house. It was not until the 16th century that the medieval water fortress was demolished and replaced by a Renaissance castle built by Hartmann II of Liechtenstein. At the end of the 17th century, it was replaced by a Baroque mansion with a large, architecturally designed garden and a monumental riding hall designed by Jan Bernard Fischer of Erlach. Today's appearance dates back to the mid-19th century, when Prince Alois II of Liechtenstein had Lednice rebuilt as a representative summer residence in the spirit of English Gothic, so that he could host grand meetings of European nobility. For this purpose, the representative halls located on the ground floor of the castle were used. They were furnished with carved ceilings, wooden wall panelling and exquisite furnishings unparalleled in Europe.

At the chateau, you can choose from four tour routes - the representative halls on the ground floor of the chateau, the princely apartments and the apartment of the princely tutors on the first floor of the chateau, the children's rooms of princes and princesses and the Milan Knížák Puppet Museum on the second floor of the chateau, and the artificial Baroque stalactite cave with an exhibition of ghosts. Technology lovers will be delighted by the tours of the technical facilities on Route IV.

Tour route I - the representative halls on the ground floor of the chateau - used to host social events, balls and balls Tour route II - the princely apartments on the first floor of the chateau - they served as private rooms of the princely family until 1945 III. tour route - children's rooms of princes and princesses and the Milan Knížák Puppet Museum on the second floor of the castle IV. tour route - technical uniquenesses of the 19th and 20th centuries and the Grotto - an artificial Baroque stalactite cave with an exposition on wine

The perfect frame for the chateau is the French garden and the extensive landscape park, one of the largest in the Czech Republic. It contains remarkable decorative buildings such as the Temple of Apollo, completed in 1819, the Empire-style Temple of the Three Graces (1825), the artificial ruins of John's Castle and the Border Chateau (1827) on the former Moravian-Austrian border. In sight of the castle, a graceful minaret, a unique architectural monument built according to a design by Josef Hardmuth in 1797-1804, stands out from the rich greenery of the park.

The publicly accessible rooms on the ground floor of the chateau are particularly notable for their carved decoration, especially the library with its magnificent spindle staircase, the imposing entrance hall and the beautiful ceilings and lower wall panelling of the Turquoise, Red and Blue Rooms.

Thanks to the ever-increasing interest of the public in so-called park tourism, educators from the local Faculty of Horticulture at Mendel University guide those interested in nature through the park. There will be two walking tours to choose from. The guides will be happy to take you through the French Garden of the park and introduce you not only to the most interesting trees and plants of the park, but above all they will present the park as a living work of art. You can also visit the palm greenhouse or the Masonic Garden.

Travelling without barriers. Only the 1st tour circuit (3 low stairs to the ticket office - a ramp is available) and the greenhouse (allowing access through the side entrance) have barrier-free access at the castle. The extensive castle park is...

Overall the castle, the gardens and all the surrounding areas are beautiful, but it is insane how poor their English is. We found one cashier who at least speaks German. Otherwise zero foreign language knowledge. I think it is totally unfair that foreigners have to pay the same entrance fee as locals, yet there is no guided tour in other languages, but Czech. Whenever the tour guide shows something around (e.g., a photo) they do not even bother to try explain in English in 2-3 words what it is. The written material (we used the QR code version) does not 100% accurate, e.g., in the main tour there was a description about the goats, yet one of them was a unicorn. The guide was talking about that for 5 minutes and there was not a single word about it in the Hungarian description. Maybe the English version is more accurate, but I doubt. There is no free toilet in the entire area, and you can only pay in cash for that. Somewhat ridiculous as the entrance fees are quite expensive. And there is no discount if you want to visit everything. Also the cashier lady just left us there as she only spoke Czech and we did not understand what she was asking (she was over 60 or 65...). Finally a younger lady came who spoke some basic English, so we could...

Been there at the end of the season (October), was not too crowded and I was able to make some exceptional photos :) On the plus side: nice architecture, big and well maintained parks and gardens, lots to see even if not going inside the buildings to see the exhibitions. For sure helps if you are there on a nice sunny day... and make sure to reserve at least half a day for this (it took me five hours to cover everything I wanted to see).

Why three stars only? Well, could not get rid of the feeling they just want to take as many of your €€s (or Kronas) as possible... Parking, 300 (daily rate) or 40 (hourly rate). Four types of exhibitions, 300 each, pay extra for this, pay extra for that, pay extra even for the toilet... (make sure to have the local currency with you, if paying with euros you will get quite shitty exch. rate, e.g. 60 czk is 3€ according to them, not 2,4€).

I saw only one exhibition - not sure why, but whole day only CZ language tours were available. Alternative was an booklet in English, no audio book or similar... Imagine going around the exhibition and reading as mental. Fortunately guide took mercy on us non-CZ speaking (four participants) and besides CZ language (two participants) also did EN...