Veveří Castle is a castle located some 15 km northwest of Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

, 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....

, on the River Svratka.

History

Earliest references to Veveří ("Squirrel") Castle date back to the turn of the first millennium, when the duke Konrad founded a hunting lodge in the area. The first recorded mention of the castle is from the years 1213 and 1222, when Prince Přemysl Otakar II used the fortified castle as a prison for rebellious peers. Initially, it was apparently a wooden residence situated ner the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary west of today's castle premises. In the 1220s a stone margrave

Margrave

A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...

 castle on the extremity of the rocky promontory behind a deep moat cut our of the rock started to grow. The so-called keep

Keep

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

 is the only structure which has remained well-preserved from this oldest building stage.

King Jan of Luxembourg later pledged the castle to Jan of Vartemberk in 1311, but Margrave Charles later received the property as a debt settlement in 1335. Count Jan Jindřich

John Henry, Margrave of Moravia

John Henry of Luxembourg, Czech: Jan Jindřich, German: Johann Heinrich , was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death....

 (John Henry), younger brother of Emperor Charles IV

Charles IV

Charles IV may refer to:* Charles IV of France, "the Fair" * Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor * Charles IV of Navarre * Charles IV, Duke of Anjou * Charles IV of Alençon...

, then took a fancy to Veveří Castle . He was responsible for the building of the rear part with its two towers and outer ward. In the central area around the keep, he developed the main palace, which included a large hall and the Chapel of St. Prokop (later of St. Wenceslas). The present appearance of the premises is the result of these building activities, giving the castle its basic silhouette of a medieval fortress.

The castle was a military-civic centre around a manor until the Hussite Wars

Hussite Wars

The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...

. During the Hussite wars, King Zikmund positioned mercenary forces of his son-in-law, Albrecht of Austria, around the castle, but he later pledged it to Petr Kutěj in 1424. The Hussites besieged the castle in vain during the years 1428-1432. During the second half of the 15th century, the castle was rented by Přemysl II of Těšín, who decided to reinforce the castle with the construction of surrounding walls. In 1468, Hungarian King Matthias started his occupation of the castle.

At the end of the 15th century, Václav of Ludanice acquired the castle and became the first representative of his noble family to reside in Veveří Castle. But his mismanagement of expenses and debts resulted in the family's eventual sale of the premises. During the years 1531-1537, Jan of Pernštejn and Jan of Lipá stayed at Veveří Castle. In successive years, the castle changed hands quickly.

In 1609, Zikmund von Tiefenbach acquired the castle by marriage. Rudolf von Tiefenbach

Rudolf von Tiefenbach

Rudolf von Tiefenbach was a German military commander who served the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.Despite beiong raised a protestant, von Tiefenbach joined the catholic Hapsburg army in 1613....

, an older brother of Zikmund’s, was a Protestant at that time, yet he remained loyal to the Catholic Emperor (and later converted to Catholicism). On November 8, 1620, at the battle of White Mountain, he and his regiment sided with the Emperor, and Rudolf distinguished himself as the leader of the right flank. When his forces later subdued Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, that extensive area became a part of the Habsburg Empire.

In 1645, the Swedish army laid siege to Veveří Castle, but their attack was unsuccessful, as the castle was well guarded and the defenders well armed. In 1653, Maria Eva Alžběta of the Sternberg family (Rudolf of Tiefenbach's dowager) inherited the castle. In 1668, Václav Michal, Count of Althan, bought the castle and resided there from 1668-1670.

At the end of the 17th century, the premises belonged to the House of Collat. Later, when the House of Sinzendorf (1707–1804) replaced the House of Collalto, an extensive reconstruction was realized, and since that time, the exterior structure of the castle has remained practically unchanged. In 1742, the Prussian army, having gained entry by the treachery of the castle steward, pillaged the interior of the estate.

At the beginning of the 19th century, an industrial magnate Vilém of Mundy purchased the castle. Although he had earlier arrived in the area as a simple wayfaring traveller, he achieved prominence and wealth after establishing a cloth factory in l780 and successfully managing his trade. In essence, he worked his way up until he could own Veveří Castle. His Royal Highness prince Gustav Wasa later bought the castle from Jan of Mundy in 1830. This nobleman lived at the estate with his spouse, princess Luisa. In 1844, he divorced, and the property went to Jiří Šimon, the freeman of Sina. Before he died in 1856, he divided his family possessions. His granddaughter Helena obtained Veveří Castle, but at that time she was still a juvenile, so the property was administered by her father. Later, Helena married Prince Řehoř Ypsilanti. She kept a pompous and very expensive court. In 1886, Řehoř Ypsilanti died in Paris. Widow Helena sold the estate, and in 1881, the castle had a new owner, Mořic, freeman of Hirš-Gereuth.

During this period, Mořic had extensive repairs and renovations completed, including a new iron water supply, roofs, and telephone connections to Obora and the manor house in Rosice

Rosice

Rosice is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, near Brno. It has around 5,300 inhabitants.- External links :* *...

. But sadly, he pulled down and destroyed the castle chapel because he was Jewish. In 1896, the castle was bought by the English nobleman Arnold De Forest-Bischofsheim. Subsequently, Winston Churchill visited the castle during his honeymoon throughout Europe in 1908. The de Forest family resided at Veveří Castle until 1925 at which time they sold it to the state.

Modern History

During World War II, the castle was occupied by the military (the German army set up barracks), and during this period the premises were extensively damaged, including shooting damage to the second floor of the so-called palace. After 1945, a permanent exposition was set up on the site. Although never refurbished to pre-war quality, the castle was still open to the public. In the 1950s, the castle was closed to the public and a school of forestry took over, doing additional damage. Starting in 1972, there was a disastrous project to turn the castle into an international conference center, which fortunately was only partly realized and stopped before more damage to the castl'e historical and artistic value could be done. After the political changes in 1989 the castle continued being neglected.

In 1994, Veveří Castle was again opened to the public, but in 1999, it was abruptly closed and allowed to fall into a state of disrepair during lengthy "property transfers". After several unsuccessful attempts to rent the castle for commercial use, the castle passed in September 1999 from the management of the Ministry of Education under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and joined the portfolio of historic buildings managed by the National Heritage Institute in Brno. Thanks to the program to protect the architectural heritage of the Ministry of Culture and extraordinary subsidies from the state budget of the city of Brno, the South Moravian Region, and voluntary collections, the worst emergency conditions were stabilized and a number of noteworthy renovations and reconstructions carried out, primarily of the palace. These renovations included a large-scale rebuilding of the "loft" above the palace, and the great dining room with its notable frescoes. Since 2002, the castle Veveří is again open to the public, including guided tours of the palace. The complete restoration of all buildings, furniture, courtyards and parks will take many years.

Description of the castle

The castle is usually entered via the so-called Southern Gate . This originally Gothic gate was recuilt in the late Renaissance style in 1626. Above the portals, there are coats of arms belonging to Zigmund of Tiefenbach and his two wives, Kateřina of Lomnice and Bohunka of Žerotin.

Leading from the Southern Gate to the palace is the castle bridge, mentioned as one of the first ferro-concrete structures in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was built on the site of a gothic drawbridge and later a Baroque bridge decorated with the statues of four saints in 1896.

From the bridge one proceeds through a passage through the palace with keep. On the left is the so-called Black Kitchen, recently restored, where several ovens and a dish-washing basin have been preserved. The keep around which the palace is built is the tallest and oldest of the ten currently visible towers of Ververi Castle, built in the early 13th century as the primary deense element of the oldest building stage of the castle. The palace is the main residential castle building, created by connecting the keep and two medieval palaces.

The former Gothic chapel of St. Prokopius in the palace, which originally extended vertically from the ground floor to the second, was replaced in the late 19th century with separate spaces on the ground floor and a library and administrative spaces on the second floor. A preliminary plan has been developed for the reconstruction of the chapel.

Beyond the palace one proceeds through a courtyard, which was created in the early 19th century by pulling down two 13th-century royal palaces. Luckily, records remain of the appearance of these palaces. Beyond the courtyard lies the so-called English Wing, constructed in the second half of the 17th centiry in the corridor between the Gothic calls. The ground floor served to park horse carriages, while the first floor was used as an armory and later as a granary. The building stands in need of extensive and costly renovation. Yet further along is found the so-called Backyard Palace, erected in the 17th century with two valuted rooms, one above the other. The renovation plans call for it to made into a space for cultural events.

At the southeastern conrner of the castle stands the so-called Eastern Prismatic Tower, built in the 14th century to protect the castle area from the east. South of this tower archaeological remains have been uncovered of walls of a medieval Eastern Castle Palace, which probably dates from the late 15th century and was pulled down before the mid 17th century.

External links

Hrad Veveří Official site


Castle Veveri-Eichorn, Vol. I, Brno, ITEM 2005,
ISBN 8O-9O2297-7-8 /Jiří Procházka/