Vranov nad Dyjí Castle

Vranov nad Dyjí (Czech: Zámek Vranov nad Dyjí) is a castle in the homonymic market town of Vranov nad Dyjí in the South Moravian Region, Czech Republic. It lies on the Thaya, 3 km (2 mi) north from the Austrian border close to Hardegg.

Vranov's location was first mentioned in Chronica Boemorum by Cosmas of Prague in 1100 as a border sentry castle (oppidum (et) castrum Wranou). It was built by the Dukes of Bohemia to defend the southern border of Moravia against raids from the neighbouring Austrian March. Until 1323 the castle was in royal hands but in that year king John of Bohemia pawned Vranov to a powerful Bohemian nobleman, the viceroy Jindřich of Lipá.

In 1421, during the disturbances of the Hussite Wars the Bohemian noble family of Lichtenburg took control of the castle and the contiguous market town. In 1499 it definitely passed on to Lichtenburgs as hereditary possession by the king Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary. The Lichtenburg family held Vranov for almost a century, until 1516.

In the 16th century, Vranov frequently changed the holders (chronologically: lords of Boskovice, Pernštejn family, lords of Lomnice, Kraigers of Krajk and Dietrichstein family). Probably the most significant owners were lords from the Bavarian family of Althann, cousins of the Princes of Belmonte. Wolf Dietrich of Althann purchased the castle in 1614. Nevertheless, seven years later the manor was confiscated due to his participation in the rebellion of the Bohemian Estates. The confiscated castle was consequently sold to one of the Albrecht von Wallenstein's generals, Johann Ernst of Scherfenberg.

Michael Johann II Althann recovered the Vranov estate for the family in 1680. He commissioned the famous Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to design a grand hall, known as 'the Hall of the Ancestors' in the Baroque style as a memorial to his Althann ancestors. It was built between 1687 and 1695. It's an oval construction surmounted by an imposing cupola and became a dominant feature of Vranov. An Austrian sculptor, Tobias Kracker, created large statues of the ancestors in niches around the walls and another Austrian artist, Johann Michael Rottmayr, painted an allegorical glorification of the Althann family in the cupola.

Text adapted from “Vranov nad Dyjí Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Vranov nad Dyjí Castle ranks #2,067 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #47 of the 200 mapped in Czech Republic. Founded 1100, it is older than 87% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 317 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,167 times in the last 60 days, more than 68% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 60,000 visitors in 2022. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Brno, 67 km away. It is one of the 156 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Bohemia. See how Czech Republic compares in the castle statistics.

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