Dolni Kounice

Rosa Coeli was founded in 1181 as a Premonstratensian convent and is one of the oldest women's religious houses in Moravia. The church was rebuilt in high Gothic in the fourteenth century, with tall arcades, window tracery and a polygonal chancel, and the convent was dissolved in 1527, after which the buildings decayed and the roof went. What stands now is a full-height Gothic shell with the arcades, tracery and cloister walls intact and the sky above, which makes the proportions unusually legible. The village around it is a wine village of the Znojmo subregion with rock-cut cellars in the slope, a chateau, and a synagogue of 1652 with an adjoining Jewish quarter and cemetery on the hillside, restored and open, marking a community that lived here for four centuries. Concerts are held in the convent ruin in summer.

History

The name comes from Kúna, a pet form of Konrád - "the village of Kúna's people" - with "Dolní", lower, to tell it from Horní Kounice. The Premonstratensian convent of Rosa Coeli was founded in 1181, the oldest in Moravia, and the village is first named in 1183; in 1284-1330 the convent built a Gothic castle on the hill above. The convent was dissolved in 1527, and an attempt to restore it in 1702 ended a year later in a fire, after which it was never rebuilt. From 1537 the estate passed through several noble families; Dolní Kounice became a town with its own arms in 1571, the Drnovský of Drnovice family turned the castle into a fortified Renaissance residence in 1588-1622, and after it burned in 1622, in the Thirty Years' War, it was repaired in Baroque style in 1682. The Dietrichsteins owned it from 1622 to 1862, the longest of all (Wikipedia, Dolní Kounice).

What you'll find

• A roofless Gothic church - arcades and tracery to full height, open to the sky.
• A convent of 1181 - among the oldest women's houses in Moravia.
• A synagogue of 1652 - with the Jewish quarter and hillside cemetery.
• Rock-cut wine cellars - dug into the slope in a working wine village.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

The convent is a shell with no roof or interiors, ticketed and seasonal. The synagogue keeps separate limited hours. Concert dates change the access. The village has a few wine cellars open by arrangement.

Nearby

Brno is north-east; the Znojmo wine country runs south.