Kromeriz Chateau and Gardens

Kromeriz was the summer seat of the bishops and later archbishops of Olomouc, and they built on a scale that has nothing to do with the size of the town. The chateau is a long baroque block with a tower, holding state rooms, a library and a picture gallery whose holdings include work by Titian and by Northern Renaissance painters. What earned the listing is the pairing of gardens. The Flower Garden, set apart from the chateau, is a strict geometric layout of clipped hedges, a domed rotunda and a long colonnade, laid out in the 17th century and largely unaltered since. The Under-Castle Garden behind the chateau is the opposite, a rambling landscape park of ponds, bridges and specimen trees.

What you actually see

• The Flower Garden - the formal 17th-century layout with rotunda, colonnade and clipped parterres.
• The picture gallery - the archbishops' collection, including a Titian and Northern Renaissance work.
• The state rooms and library - baroque interiors and the assembly hall on the chateau tour.
• The Under-Castle Garden - the landscape park of ponds, bridges and old trees behind the chateau.

When to go

May to September for both gardens at their best and for the full chateau routes; the Flower Garden's planting is the point and it looks thin outside summer. The chateau closes on Mondays and largely shuts from November. The two gardens sit a fifteen-minute walk apart, so allow more time than the map suggests.

Honest expectations

Tickets are split between chateau, gallery and each garden, which adds up quickly. The interiors are seen on a guided tour with limited English. The Flower Garden is severe and geometric, and visitors expecting flowerbeds often find it dry. The town beyond the historic core is unremarkable.

Nearby

Olomouc is an hour north, and the Moravian wine country lies to the southwest.