UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Czechia

UNESCO's Description

This pilgrimage church, built in honour of St John of Nepomuk, stands at Zelená Hora, not far from Ždár nad Sázavou in Moravia. Constructed at the beginning of the 18th century on a star-shaped plan, it is the most unusual work by the great architect Jan Blazej Santini, whose highly original style falls between neo-Gothic and Baroque.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk near the monastery in Žďár(currently Zdar Estate with New generation museum) was built through the collaboration of Václav Vejmluva, an abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Žďár, and the famous architect Johann Santini Aichel. Vejmluva was a proven devotee of John of Nepomuk before he was beatified as well as after he was canonized. The preparation of the project dates from late April to the early August 1719, and is considered a direct reaction of the abbot to the discovery of preserved tissue in the tomb of John of Nepomuk in the St. Vitus Cathedral on 15 April 1719. The design of the building was entrusted to Santini Aichel to whom abbot Vejmluva is alleged to have presented his ideas about the new sanctuary and the symbols used.

Description

The central church along with its adjacent cloister is uniformly projected and built structure. Architecture of this building is very minimalistic and enormously effective. It combines Baroque and Gothic elements which in fact points to the age when John of Nepomuk lived, worked and was martyred. The construction of church is based on geometry of circle while constantly repeating number five as a reference to Nepomuk's five stars. Those stars, according to a legend, appeared above his body when he had died.

This is a good example of how Santini used to project his structures—practically just by using compass to draft whole building on arcs of circles which radius was generally multiple of building's module.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q752318 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the ruling dukes of Liechtenstein transformed their domains in southern Moravia into a striking landscape. It married Baroque architecture (mainly the work of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach) and the classical and neo-Gothic style of the castles of Lednice and Valtice with countryside fashioned according to English romantic principles of landscape architecture. At 200 km 2 , it is one of the largest artificial landscapes in Europe.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The House of Liechtenstein acquired Valtice (German name: Feldsberg) Castle in 1249, which marked the beginning of their settlement in the area. It remained the principal Liechtenstein residence for 700 years, until 1939 and World War II. Valtice Castle was expanded in late Romanesque style in the first half of the 13th century, but was badly damaged in the Hussite Wars and later rebuilt by Prince Charles I of Liechtenstein, in the Baroque style. From the 14th century, Lednice (German name: Eisgrub) was a fortified manor belonging to the Valtice estate and from 1680 it was expanded into a palace that was redesigned in a Tudor Gothic Revival style (then: "Old English style") between 1846 and 1858 by Prince Aloys II.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q735278 (CC0).

Visiting Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (Lednicko-valtický areál) is in South Moravia, Czech Republic, near the Austrian and Slovakian border. It is truly a cultural landscape - you can find numerous historical and natural sights here. The areal somehow resembles a very large garden with numerous decorations (including two large chateaux) build mostly in Romanticism architecture style.

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape (CC BY-SA 4.0).

UNESCO's Description

Holašovice is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a traditional central European village. It has a large number of outstanding 18th- and 19th-century vernacular buildings in a style known as 'South Bohemian folk Baroque', and preserves a ground plan dating from the Middle Ages.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Holašovice is first mentioned in 1263. In 1292, King Wenceslaus II gave the village and several others to the Cistercian monastery of Vyšší Brod. It remained the property of the monastery until 1848.

Between 1520 and 1525, Holašovice was nearly wiped out by the bubonic plague. Only two of its inhabitants survived. A column erected over the plague grave at the north end of the village commemorates this event. The monastery gradually repopulated the village with settlers from Bavaria and Austria. By 1530, the population had risen to 17, according to the monastery's records, and it had become a mainly German-speaking enclave within the Czech language area. By 1900, there were 163 inhabitants of German ethnic origin and 1 of Czech ethnic origin.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q826452 (CC0).

Visiting Holašovice

Holašovice is a small village in South Bohemia, located 15 km from the region capital, České Budějovice. Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Holašovice is the best example of something called "Selské Baroko (village barocco)", which means very strongly decorated and colorful village houses from 19th century. You can see houses similar to houses in Holašovice in many villages and towns in Czech Republic - the uniqueness of Holašovice is in preserved state of the buildings, their number, and the fact that there are no newer buildings on the main square. As such, the main square with these well decorated and maintained buildings looks really magnificent.

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Holašovice (CC BY-SA 4.0).

UNESCO's Description

Litomyšl Castle was originally a Renaissance arcade-castle of the type first developed in Italy and then adopted and greatly developed in central Europe in the 16th century. Its design and decoration are particularly fine, including the later High-Baroque features added in the 18th century. It preserves intact the range of ancillary buildings associated with an aristocratic residence of this type.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The town of Litomyšl developed in the 13th century on the trading route between Bohemia and Moravia. In 1568, work started on the construction of the castle, overseen by Jan Baptista Avostalis and his brother Oldřich. By 1580, most of the building had been constructed. The castle served as the domain of the prestigious Pernštejn family from 1567 until the death of the house's last member, Frebonie, in 1646.

From 1649, the castle belonged to the noble Trauttmansdorff family, who had it redesigned in the classicist Baroque style by František Maxmilián Kaňka in the first half of the 18th century (and are still preserved today). In 1758 the Counts Waldstein acquired it. Georg Josef von Waldstein-Wartenberg had the castle theater built.

Description

The castle itself has three floors and has four wings arranged asymmetrically. The largest is the west wing, while the smallest is the south wing, a two-story arcaded gallery, closing off a square courtyard. The arcading and groin vaulting continues around this courtyard. The eastern wing contains the castle chapel, and the western wing contains a theatre, with the stage decorations, machinery, and auditorium preserved intact.

In addition to the castle, there are several ancillary buildings, including the Brewery, which lies to the south of the larger, outside courtyard and was originally designed with sgraffito decorations to complement the castle. After a fire in 1726, it was remodeled by the famous Baroque architect František Maxmilián Kaňka.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q2164885 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno, designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is an outstanding example of the international style in the modern movement in architecture as it developed in Europe in the 1920s. Its particular value lies in the application of innovative spatial and aesthetic concepts that aim to satisfy new lifestyle needs by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by modern industrial production.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The villa was commissioned by the German Jewish Fritz and Greta Tugendhat. The construction company of Artur and Moritz Eisler began construction in the summer of 1929 and finished it in 14 months.

Fritz and Greta Tugendhat lived in the villa for just eight years before the Nazi's persecution of and genocide of the Jewish people forced the family to flee Czechoslovakia for their lives with their children in 1938 (including philosopher Ernst Tugendhat), shortly before the country was dismembered following the Munich Agreement with the Nazis.

The family moved to Switzerland and then had to flee again to Venezuela; after the Holocaust they returned to Switzerland, but never were able to live in the villa again.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q457453 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The ensemble of the Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery and the Basilica of St Procopius in Třebíč are reminders of the co-existence of Jewish and Christian cultures from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The Jewish Quarter bears outstanding testimony to the different aspects of the life of this community. St Procopius' Basilica, built as part of the Benedictine monastery in the early 13th century, is a remarkable example of the influence of Western European architectural heritage in this region.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q16988075 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří (Ore Mountains) spans a region in south-eastern Germany (Saxony) and north-western Czechia, which contains a wealth of several metals exploited through mining from the Middle Ages onwards. The region became the most important source of silver ore in Europe from 1460 to 1560. Mining was the trigger for technological and scientific innovations transferred worldwide. Tin was historically the second metal to be extracted and processed at the site. At the end of the 19th century, the region became a major global producer of uranium. The cultural landscape of the Ore Mountains has been deeply shaped by 800 years of almost continuous mining, from the 12th to the 20th century, with mining, pioneering water management systems, innovative mineral processing and smelting sites, and mining cities.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

From the first discovery of silver ore in 1168 in Christiansdorf in the territory of the present-day borough of Freiberg, which is part of the Freiberg Mining Field, mining was carried out uninterruptedly in the Ore Mountains until 1990. During that time, several different metals were extracted from the region. Silver was the first metal mined in the region (particularly around Freiberg), and the region was a world-leading producer of silver ore during the 14th through 16th centuries. On the Bohemian side of the mountains, Krupka grew into a prominent mining town, extracting silver, tin, and later iron, lead, copper, and mercury.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q1945612 (CC0).