Břeclav

Castle of Břeclav

is originally built in the Renaissance style, later re-built in romanticizing style, in the Town of Břeclav. It is protected as cultural heritage of the Czech Republic.[1]

Originally, on the place of the castle prince Břetislav I built a border castle, and the estate was named after him. The castle was used as one of administration centres of the principalities of medieval Moravia, but later it became one of manor houses. Then the Přemyslide castle and Nová and Stará Břeclav were bought by the Žerotín family, who re-built it into a Renaissance castle in the 1st half of the 16th century. The estate in Břeclav was confiscated to Ladislav Velen of Žerotín (1589-1622) due to his participation in the uprising of the estates in 1618. In 1638 the estate was acquired by the Liechtenstein family who owned the neighbouring estate in Valtice and Lednice. During the wars with the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent Thirty Years’ War Stará and Nová Břeclav were nearly destroyed. As a part of later large building and landscaping works in the estate of the Liechtenstein family that resulted in establishment of so-called Lednice-Valtice area, the castle of Břeclav (which wasn’t a residential castle), as a part of the complex, was rebuilt in the romantic style into artificial ruins.

Museum

Parish church of St. Václav

It is a parish church of Břeclav. They started to build the church in 1992. It is located in the square, on the place of the original church built in Baroque style in the middle of the 18th century. Before the Baroque church, there was a Romanesque church, which was re-built in Gothic style.

Archaeological open-air museum - Pohansko

It is an open-air museum representing the Great Moravian ritual, manufacturing and residential area. You can see a pagan shrine and a skeleton burial site dated to the 10th century, a wall and a pottery kiln dating back to the 9th century. The archaeological open-air museum is not far from the small castle of Pohansko near Břeclav, in the area where during the 9th – 11th centuries one of the largest settlements of Central Europe was built in connection with origin of The Great Moravian Empire. There is a nature trail Pohansko around the archaeological open-air museum.

Jewish Quarter