Mikulov Castle
Encyclopedia
Mikulov
Mikulov is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic with a population of 7,608 . It is located directly on the border with Lower Austria. Mikulov is located at the edge of a hilly area and the three Nové Mlýny reservoirs...
in South Moravia, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The castle stands on a place of historic Slavonic settlement, where since the end of the 13th century the original stone castle was erected. The present castle is the result of a reconstruction in 1719-1730 under the dukes of Dietrichstein
Dietrichstein
Dietrichstein was the name of a German/Austrian noble family.Maximilian von Dietrichstein was created Graf von Dietrichstein on 18 September 1612 and Fürst von Dietrichstein zu Nikolsburg on 24 March 1639...
. The end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
meant a complete disaster for the castle, as German troops withdrawing from the town set fire to it. After an extensive reconstruction in the 1950s, the castle became the seat of the Regional Museum in Mikulov, housing art and historical collections, including artifacts relating to the history of local wine
Mikulovská wine
Mikulovská is one of four Czech wine regions within southern Moravia, Czech Republic. The Mikulovská wine region, containing 30 wine villages, is famed for producing white wines grown in the limestone soils, particularly in and around the area of the Pálava Landscape Protected Area...
production. The Renaissance wine barrel, dating from 1643 and one of the largest (1014 hl) wine barrels in Central Europe, is on display.