Nove Mesto nad Metuji

Nove Mesto was laid out in 1501 on a rock spur inside a tight loop of the Metuje, so the old town is a compact grid with the river on three sides and steep drops below the walls. The square is a complete Renaissance ensemble of arcaded houses with gables and sgraffito, rebuilt after a fire in 1526 and hardly altered since. The chateau at the end of the spur was remodelled between 1908 and 1913 for the industrialist Josef Barton by Dusan Jurkovic and Pavel Janak, and this is the interesting layer: Jurkovic designed the terraced garden with a covered bridge, pergolas, a lookout and furniture in his folk-influenced modern manner, and Janak added Cubist elements, so an early sixteenth-century town carries some of the best Czech architecture of the 1910s at one end of it. The valley below is walked.

What you actually see

• A Renaissance square - arcaded gabled houses on the spur, little altered since 1526.
• A river loop below - the Metuje on three sides with steep drops.
• Jurkovic's terraced garden - covered bridge, pergolas and furniture of 1908-1913.
• Janak's Cubist additions - early Czech Cubism in the chateau remodelling.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Honest expectations

Chateau and garden are guided and seasonal, with separate routes. Closed Mondays. The old town is small - a couple of hours. Parking on the spur is very limited.

Nearby

Nachod is ten kilometres east; Ratiborice is south.