Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape


State Party = CZE
Type = Cultural
Criteria = i, ii, iv
ID = 763
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1996
Session = 20th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/763

The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (also Lednice-Valtice Area or Lednice-Valtice Complex, _cs. Lednicko-valtický areál) is a cultural-natural complex of 283,09 km² in the Czech Republic, South Moravian Region, close to Břeclav and Mikulov, next to another site registered by UNESCO - Pálava Landscape Protected Area.

History and description

During the 18th and 19th centuries the area was transformed by local manor lordship - the House of Liechtenstein - into some large landscape park with two centres:

* Valtice Castle (and contiguous town)
* Lednice Castle (and contiguous village)

These two localities are connected by so called Bezruč Avenue (from 1715). There are also one more village - Hlohovec. Between Lednice, Valtice and Hlohovec the Lednice Ponds ("Lednické rybníky") are situated ("Mlýnský", "Prostřední", "Hlohovecký" and "Nesyt" Ponds). A substantial part of the complex is covered with the Pine wood ("Boří les") and partially with a riparian forest adjacent to the River Dyje.

Except for above mentioned, there are a lot of bigger or smaller pavilions scattered throughout the whole complex (they often served as hunting lodges) [The term "zámeček" ( _de. Schlösschen, literally a "small château") is here translated usually as a "(manor) house" - or a "hunting lodge" ( _cs. lovecký zámeček, _de. Jagdschlösschen), if it served for hunting.] :

* Rajsna (German: "Reistna", The Colonnade)
- a Classicist colonnade on the top of a hill ridge above Valtice (like a gloriette) from 1810s-1820s
* Belvedere
* Rendezvous (or Temple of Diana)
- a hunting lodge in a form of a Classicist arch from 1810s
* St Hubert Chapel ("Kaple svatého Huberta")
- a Neo-Gothic column structure from 1850s dedicated to the patron saint of hunters, situated in the Pine wood
* Border House ("Hraniční zámeček")
- a Classicist chateau built in 1820s directly on the former (until 1920) bordline between Lower Austria and Moravia
* Temple of the Three Graces ("Tři Grácie")
- a semicircle gallery with allegorical statues of Sciences and Muses and a statue of the Three Graces from 1820s
* Pond House ("Rybniční zámeček")
- ashore of one of the Lednice Ponds
* Nový dvůr (German: "Neuhof", New Farm) - a Classicist farm finished in 1809, originally used for sheep husbandry, nowadays for horse breeding
* Apollo Temple ("Apollónův chrám")
- a Classicist hunting lodge from 1810s, ashore of one of the Lednice Ponds
* Hunting Lodge ("Lovecký zámeček")
- a Classicist house from 1806
* John's Castle ("Janohrad")
- a Neo-Gothic "artificial ruins" ( _cs. umělá zřícenina, _de. künstliche Ruine) in style of a castle, finished in 1810
* Minaret
- a Moorish Revival structure (62 m high) in the Lednice Castle garden (finished in 1804), it serves as an observation tower
* Obelisk
- erected in memory of the peace treaty of Campo Formio (1798)
* Pohansko
- an Empire-style hunting lodge finished after 1812, it houses an exhibition of Břeclav Town Museum:
close to the lodge there are both an important archaeological site of Great Moravian remains and reconstructed parts of the Czechoslovak border fortifications
* Lány
- an Empire-style hunting lodge from the beginning of the 19th century

Photogallery

Notes

References

* 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).

See also

* Lednice
* Valtice