July 3, 2011: Castle Tour in Southern Moravia

Today was our three castle tour day.  We left the hotel around 8:00 AM and drove toward Southern Moravia, which is in the Czech Republic.  The Mikulov Castle is a chateau on a rocky area above the city of Mikulov.  The views from the castle are beautiful of the picturesque countryside and red tile-roofed city.  This castle, a former Liechtenstein and later Diestrichstein chateau, has dominated the Mikulov landscape for centuries with the original castle built in the 13^th century.  In the 16^th century, it became the property of the Dietrichstein family and was reconstructed (1719-1730) to its present appearance.  At the end of the second World War, the retreating German army, set fire to the castle as they left Mikulov and completely destroyed the complex.  Reconstruction in the 1950’s resulted in it being converted into a regional museum.   The weather turned rainy and we dealt with on and off again rain for most of the day. 

Leaving Mikulov, we drove to Lednice, which is a small town in south Moravia.  The castle property was in the hands of the house of Liechtenstein since the mid-13^th century.  It was originally a Renaissance villa and became the summer residence of the ruling princes in the 17^th century.  It was almost completely rebuilt in 1846-58 in Neo (Windsor) Gothic style with a surrounding English garden style park and a 60 miter minaret.  Amazingly, this was the Lichtenstein summer residence and resembles a fairy-tale castle.  The main residence for the family was in Valtice.  Lednice castle was definitely a castle in grand style with central heating, a spiral staircase in the library that is carved from one tree, original Chinese wall paper, and beautiful grounds.   We had a guided tour of the house and marveled at the exquisite rooms.

Next, we drove to the Liechtenstein main castle at Valtice, which dates from 1658 and newly reconstructed in 2007.  This castle is located in the central winegrowing region of Moravia, which produces the best wines in the Czech Republic.  We had a tour of the castle, which wasn’t as impressive as the Lednice castle, but it contained a large castle in which the IPC choir sang a concert late in the afternoon.  After the concert, we proceeded to the huge wine cellar for a wine tasting of 4 white and 2 red Czech wines.  The cellar contains 100 of the best Czech wines, selected each year in a wine competition, for supervised tastings.  Several of us purchased a bottle or two of wine to enjoy on the trip.

We had a 1-1/2 hour drive back to Bratislava where we had dinner at the hotel and packed for tomorrow’s departure to Vienna.

Mikulov Town Clock Tower

Mikulov Castle

View from Mikulov Castle

Bev with Mikulov Below

Mikulov Castle Library

Lednice Castle

In Front of Lednice Castle

Bedroom in Lednice Castle

Knight's Hall in Lednie Castle

Blue Room in Lednice Castle

Staircase in Lednice Castle Library

Valtice Castle

Valtice Castle Chapel

Valtice Chapel Side Chapel

Ceiling of Valtice Chapel

Wine Tasting in Valtice Wine Cellar

Dining Room of Apollo Hotel