Moravský Krumlov Castle: A Medieval Castle and Renaissance Chateau in Czechia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Czechia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Bohemia, Margraviate of Moravia
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page13 sections
History
Moravský Krumlov Castle is a medieval castle and Renaissance chateau in Czechia, built under the Bohemian crown between 1238 and 1240 for King Wenceslaus I. It stands at a strategically narrow point in a meander of the Rokytná River around the town. The residence was first mentioned in writing on 6 May 1277, when it appeared as Chrumenaw in a peace treaty between Ottokar II Přemysl, king of Bohemia, and Rudolf I, the King of the Romans.
Royal foundation and medieval lords
Boček of Jaroslavice and Zbraslav, burgrave of Znojmo, erected the castle for Wenceslaus I. After Ottokar II died at the Battle of Marchfeld, Boček’s son Gerhard of Zbraslav and Obřany took control of the castle and the town then being built. Wenceslaus II granted both to Gerhard as his property, and Gerhard is recorded as the castle’s owner in 1289.
When the Obřany line died out, the castle returned to the sovereign. After 1312, Margrave John granted it to his marshal, Henry of Leipa. Henry III of Leipa sold the castle and the Krumlov lordship to the Lords of Krawarn in 1368. After that family became extinct, the lordship passed back to the Lords of Leipa in 1434.
Conversion into a Renaissance chateau
John III of Leipa began converting the medieval castle into a chateau after 1513. In 1537, the physician Paracelsus was summoned to treat John of Leipa. He abandoned the treatment after finding the patient in worse condition than had been described and left without permission.
Around 1560, the master builder Leonardo Garove of Bissone transformed the complex into a Renaissance chateau. The principal works took place during the ownership of Perchtold V of Leipa and included the west wing and the arcades. The conversion was probably finished in 1593, when the stables in the eastern forecourt were built.
Liechtenstein ownership and the majorat
After the Battle of White Mountain, a major conflict in 1620 that confirmed Habsburg control over the Bohemian lands, the possessions of Berthold Bohuslaw, also known as Bohubud, of Leipa were confiscated in 1621. He had been a leader of the Moravian Estates, the representative political body of the Moravian lands.
Gundaker of Liechtenstein purchased the Krumlov lordship in 1624. In 1633, his youngest son secured the elevation of the Krumlov and Ostroh lordships into the Principality of Liechtenstein, whose residence was in Stadt Liechtenstein, also called Krumlov. These names soon fell out of use and were obsolete by 1647.
In 1634, Gundaker created the Small Majorat of the House of Liechtenstein from the Krumlov lordship and the associated Wolframitz estate. A majorat was an inheritable estate legally tied to a family line and generally protected from division or ordinary sale. Anton Florian of Liechtenstein assumed the Small Majorat in 1711, inherited the Great Caroline Majorat in 1712, and united the two estates.
Joseph Wenceslaus of Liechtenstein exchanged the Krumlov lordship with his brother Emanuel in 1751, receiving Emanuel’s allodial lordship of Lundenburg in return. In 1771, Emanuel’s younger son, Charles Borromeus Joseph of Liechtenstein, inherited the Small Majorat, while his elder brother Franz Joseph became heir to the Great Majorat. The Small Majorat then continued through Charles’s branch of the Liechtenstein family.
By 1835, the fideicommiss primogeniture lordship of Moravian Krumlov, together with the affiliated estates of Frainspitz and Groß Tajax, included the towns of Krumlov and Eibenschitz, the market towns of Hosterlitz, Proßmeritz, Rauchowan, Weimislitz, and Wolframitz, and 35 villages. The combined population was approximately 22,500.
Kinsky inheritance and twentieth-century changes
Rudolf of Liechtenstein died in 1908, ending the male line of the Charles branch. Ferdinand Rudolf Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau inherited the chateau and its associated estate, followed in 1919 by his second son, Rudolf Anton.
After the Second World War, Rudolf Anton Kinsky’s property was confiscated under the Beneš Decrees. These postwar Czechoslovak decrees provided, among other measures, a legal basis for confiscating property belonging to people regarded as having supported Nazi Germany. Rudolf Anton had played a major role in promoting the incorporation of Moravský Krumlov into the German Reich in 1938.
During the second half of the twentieth century, the chateau housed various administrative offices and was later used by the Czechoslovak Army. From 1963 to 2012, the Knights’ Hall housed the Alfons Maria Mucha Picture Gallery. Its twenty paintings formed the monumental Slav Epic, a cycle devoted to the history of the Slavic peoples, with ten paintings concerned with Bohemian history.
In 1992, the chateau was sold for one Czech crown to Zámek a.s. Incheba Bratislava acquired it at auction in 2004, but its deteriorated condition led to its placement on the list of endangered monuments. At a further auction in 2016, the chateau was valued at 21 million Czech crowns, and the town of Moravský Krumlov acquired it for 14 million Czech crowns.
Remains
River setting and Renaissance courtyard
The castle occupies the narrowest point of a meander formed by the Rokytná River around Moravský Krumlov. Its Renaissance transformation created a three-sided courtyard lined with arcades, a series of arches supported by columns or piers. Relief decoration covers the arcade pillars, whose forms follow Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian styles. The complex is described as the oldest of the Moravian arcade chateaux.
Renaissance wings and forecourt buildings
West wing
The west wing is one of the principal additions from the Renaissance rebuilding. Examination of its timber framework using dendrology, the study of trees and woody plants, dates that framework to 1562. The date places the surviving structure within the major phase of transformation associated with Perchtold V of Leipa.
Eastern forecourt stables
The stables stand in the eastern forecourt and belong to the final phase of the chateau conversion. Their construction probably completed the transformation in 1593, a year also displayed on the portal.
Park and gallery spaces
English landscape park
A 12-hectare English landscape park surrounds the castle. This type of designed park uses naturalistic lawns, plantings, and scenery rather than formal geometric layouts.
Knights’ Hall
The Knights’ Hall formerly contained the Alfons Maria Mucha Picture Gallery. The twenty paintings of the Slav Epic depicted the history of the Slavic peoples, and ten focused on Bohemian history. The gallery remained in the hall from 1963 to 2012.
Nearby sites
