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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.