I have been many times in this beautiful landscape, which in reality is a huge park in Baroque and English romantic style (200 sq. km) created between the 17th and the 20th century by dukes of Liechtenstein and projected by Bernard Petri and Josef van der Schot. The castle of Valtice was the Liechtensteins’ residence, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture (originally in Renaissance and Mannerist styles), projected by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Giovan Giacomo Tencalla, Giovanni Battista Carlone, Domenico Martinelli and Anton Johann Ospel, with rooms containing the original furniture and paintings, the theatre and the chapel. Very interesting is also the town centre with a big square, the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the church of St. Augustine with the convent, the Column of the Virgin, a fountain, the old hospital, the Franciscan convent, a gate, the town hall and the Chapel of St. Joseph. The castle of Lednice is a neo-classical and neo-Gothic building (originally in Renaissance and Baroque style), projected in the centuries by Tencalla, Carlone, Giovanni Maria Filippi and Joseph Kornhäusel, with rooms in Tudor style, a huge glasshouse and stables projected by Fischer von Erlach. In the Lednice - Valtice park are a lot of ponds created by the river Dyje and native and exotic trees. The greatest variety of them (different for form, height and colours) is around the two main residences and along the banks of the ponds; there are also copses and individual trees around and within the meadows, straight lines of trees and roads lined with groups of them. There are also about 15 small building, projected by Hardmuth, Kornhäusel, Engel and Joseph Popellach in romantic style situated on high points, or in the centre of major routes, or on a border or boundary. There are beatiful views from some of that to the others (the dominant elements are the Minaret and the Colonnade); some of the buildings have a facade and a background of greenery, so they must be viewed only from one direction, but others don't have one front in particular so are interesting the views from many directions. A lot of them are imitations of buildings of various cultures: the Minaret, an Islamic building, the Janohrad, small castle constructed as a medieval ruin, the Temple of Apollo, imitation of a classical temple, the Temple of Diana, built like a Roman arch, a Roman aqueduct, an Egyptian obelisk, a classical colonnade (Rejstna), the Tøi Grácie colonnade, the New Courts, the St. Hubertus chapel, the castles Belvedere, Hunting, of Boundaries, of Pond, Lány and Pohansko. At Pohansko there was a great-Moravian hillfort(9th - 10th century), 28 hectares big, with the court of the ruler, houses, tombs and the still visible church and 2km long walls.

I liked very much this cultural landscape and especially the two castles because of the quality and the variety of the architecture and of the landscape design; also the minor buildings are very interesting. The autenticity of the cultural landscape is very high, even if the castles have different building phases and aren't only in Romantic style but also older. The main building are quite well conservated but some of the minor buildings are in very bad conditions (Temple of Apollo, Temple of Diana, New Courts, Belvedere Castle, Hunting Castle, Lány Castle). They need urgent restoration works and fortunately they are in course on some of this buildings. I think it will be better to eliminate some highly inappropriate modern elements (wooden tympanums, modern windows destroying old doors and windows) of some buildings. The cultural landscape justifies the inscription because it is a masterpiece of the park design in English style and it is worth to be visited. Lednice and Valtice castles are easy to reach from the exits of the highway D2 going from Brno to Bratislava and you can park directly in front of them; there are guided tours but only in Czech. You can arrive to some of the minor buildings by car (don't be scared to take some roads where is forbidden to drive, there won't be controls), but you must have a very detailed map of them. If you want to see the other buildings you must walk in woods for a maximum of four km, but you have to know where are the nearest parkings to this buildings. Some of them are open with guided tours in Czech, some without and some are closed.

Photo: Lednice - Castle