Hradec nad Moravici

Hradec nad Moravici sits on a spur above the Moravice on the site of a Great Moravian stronghold, and the buildings are two: the White Chateau, an Empire remodelling of the old castle finished in the 1790s and 1800s, and the Red Chateau, a neo-Gothic brick range added in the 1870s and 1880s alongside it, so the ensemble is white and red in the same park. It belonged to the Lichnovsky family, who were serious musical patrons: Beethoven stayed here in 1806 and worked on the Fourth Symphony, and his quarrel with Prince Karl Lichnovsky, in which he refused to play for French officers and left in the night, happened at this house. Liszt came twice as a young man and Paganini also stayed. A music festival, Beethovenuv Hradec, has run here since 1961. The park runs to about a hundred hectares.

History

The area was first settled around 3000 BC, and a hillfort stood here in the 8th century; the place is first mentioned in 1060, when the army of Bolesław II of Poland was defeated here. After a fire in the mid-13th century King Ottokar II rebuilt the fort as a large Gothic castle, which grew in importance when his widow Queen Kunigunde lived here in 1279-1281 and then as the seat of the Duchy of Troppau; the settlement became a town in 1481, and in the Middle Ages town and castle were never taken. It belonged to the Bohemian kings until 1585, when Rudolf II sold it to Kašpar Pruskovský of Pruskov; it suffered in the Thirty Years' War and lost its town rights until 1702. In 1778 the estate was bought by the princely Lichnowsky family, who owned it until 1945. Industry grew in the 19th century, the railway arrived in 1905, and in 1972 the town took its present name (Wikipedia, Hradec nad Moravicí).

What you'll find

• A white chateau and a red one - Empire and neo-Gothic in the same park.
• Beethoven's rooms - where he stayed in 1806 and quarrelled with his patron.
• Liszt and Paganini - both guests of the Lichnovsky family here.
• A hundred-hectare park - on the spur above the Moravice.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Practical notes

Guided tours only, seasonal, with separate routes for the two buildings. Festival dates change the access. Closed Mondays. The park is free and open longer.

Nearby

Opava is eight kilometres north; Ostrava is east.