Czech Republic Off The Beaten Path Tips by globetrott Top 5 Page for this destination

Znojmo / Znaim - south of Brno / Brünn

Znojmo / Znaim is a small town of 39.ooo inhabitants and mainly famous for its wine and for its pickeled cucumbers ( the famous Znaimer Gurkerl )
On the way from Vienna to Prague you will pass by Znaim and it will be worth a visit .
On my picture you see the theatre of Znojmo and some excamples of the great architecture, like the town-square, houses with grafitti-facades and a lot more.
My favorite was a small greek-othodox-church.

1-2 hours should be enough to explore the city, especially when you are lucky to catch the small sight-seeing-train getting you to all places of interest.

Teplice - in the north of Czech Republik

Teplice / Tepliz is an important town in the north of Czechia, and almost all the trafic to Dresden is going through this town with 53000 inhabitants.
Most tourists simply pass by, but Teplice has also a few nice parks, a great castle, a casino , a few great hotels and art nouveau-facades and an important spa.
My favorite area is at "Zamezke nam" - the castle-square with the castle and castle-church (on the right of my picture).
In a small distance you may see "Erzgebirgstheater" a theatre, and "Urquell" - NOT a beer, But a spa with a well , where the water springs with a temperature of 42 degrees celsius.
Big parts of Teplice are a bit unsafe and it is always best to be careful, where to park your car and where to take a walk. Plenty of ladies offer their services there in the streets day and night. Don't pay attention to them, and they will leave you alone...

You may get to Teplice by train or by car on the main-road from Prague to Dresden. driving-time from Prague is about 2 hours.

Litomerice - 60km north-east of Prague

Litomerice / Leimeritz is an interesting town, 60km north-east of Prague and rather close to Terezin / Theresienstadt.
The most interesting part of Litomerice is certainly the townsquare with plenty of buildings dating back to the 15th century.
Quite unique is the house with the black sgrafitti-decorations, it is a hotel today .
You might need half a day in order to explore Litomerice and prices are still quite low in that part of Czechia.

You may go to Litomerice by train, by cruise-ship on the river Labe / Elbe, or by car, using road #15 from Lovosice (at the end of the highway north of Prague )

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/62a23/

Hluboka nad Vltavou - west of Budweis

Hluboka castle was built already in the the 13th century.
Later-on it was rebuilt several times and finally bought in 1661 by Jan Adolf I. von Schwarzenberg ( 1615-1685 ).

The Schwarzenberg family had German and Dutch origin - this might be one of the reasons, why you see so plenty of great Dutch paintings and tapisseries inside the castle.
Jan Adolf II. von Schwarzenberg ( 1779-1888) and his wife Eleonora ( von Liechtenstein ) was a great politician and used to travel often to England and finally decided to rebuild their castle in Tudor-style, similar to Windsor castle.

And also the park around the castle reminds a lot of the famous english parks : In 1851 more than 11000 trees were planted, and plenty of them are still to be seen in the park around the castle, beeing almost as high as the castle today.

For more infos and pics - please click on the link below and see my VT-page about Hluboka nad Vltavou.

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/6381c/4/

Rozemberk nad Vltavou - south of Cesky Krumlov

Rozemberk nad Vltavou / Rosenburg an der Moldau is about 7 km north of the Austrian border, and 10km south of Cesky Krumlov / Böhmisch Krumau !

Rozemberk nad Vltavou is just a small village of maybe 1500 inhabitants today, but it obviously had some strategic importance in medieval times, because 2 castles were built there and still dominate the panorama.
When visiting the castles, you have to leave your car down in the village and walk up the hill.
The very best attraction of Rozmberk is in my opinion the lovely place, where it was built along the river Vltava / Moldau.
The river goes very slow and you have the feeling the time stands still in Rozemberk, with only a very few cars in the streets and almost no tourists at all.
Rozemberk nad Vltavou is a perfect place for a quiet and peaceful vacation, and it still has really cheap prices in the restaurants - about half of the prices you have to pay in the touristy town of Cesky Krumlov / Böhmisch Krumau, just beeing 10 km to the north...

For more infos and pics - just click on my link below !!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/618a5/

Trebon / Wittingau - not far from C.Budejovice

Trebon is another very interesting , small town in southern Bohemia, mostly overseen by tourists...

Trebon is mainly known for its carps, growing up in the many lakes around town.
For the tourists they have a perfect baroque townsquare, a lovely castle and great possibilities for hiking and easy biking in the flat landscape.
Right in the centre of town the castle of Trebon was built by italian architects in 1562 for the Rosenberg-family.
In 1660 it became a property of the Schwarzenberg family, who rebuilt a part of the castle.
The big castle with a total of 4 courts has only a few rooms that are worth seeing for the ordinary tourists, some rooms are used as a gallery today, and the biggest part of the castle holds the state-archives and old documents of the Rozemberk-family.
At a few places you may still see the original medieval town-wall and moat of Trebon / Wittingau.

For more infos and pics - just click on my link below !!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/60fd6/

Kratochvile - west of C.Budejovice / Budweis

"Kratochvile" means "amusement / fun / pleasure" in Czechia and at the same time it is the name of a small summer-castle about 40 Km west of Cesky Budejovice / Budweis.
Kratochvile was built for Vilem von Rosenberg, who was a rich merchant and wanted to have a summercastle built in the Italian Renaissance style.
So he ordered this castle from his italian architect Baltazar Maggi di Arogno, who had a lot of problems to build the castle on the muddy ground.
He finally used the same method as in Venice, with wooden trunks making a perfect foundation for the castle.
Today you see the castle in the centre, surrounded by a moat and the gardens that are surrounded by a wall .
Besides of the great chapel the ceilings of the castle are the very best part of it.
You would not expect such a big variety of excellent ceilings , when you see the rather simple architecture of the castle from outside.

For more infos and pics - click on my link below !!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/62e41/

Lednice / Eisgrub - south of Brno / Brünn

Lednice / Eisgrub has the most visitors of all the castles in Czechia and it is very popular also umong the local people, who come here simply to spend some time in the great parks with the family.
This type of "Tudor-style-castle" became quite popular in Bohemia and Moravia in the end of the 19th century and Lednice / Eisgrub was the first of its kind and others copied this style ( like Hluboka nad Vltavou / close to Ceske Budejovice / Budweis )

Back in the 13th century the castle Lednice was founded next to the castle Valtice, also belonging to the Lichtensteins.
They built a perfect system of canals and artificial lakes - you may still see it, when walking through the parks of Lednice.
In the 17th century a baroque castle was built and partly restored in the neo-gothic Tudor-style in the 19th centrury.

The Lichtenstein family had an important position in the austrian court and were granted certain rights, that allowed them to have their own independant county of Liechtenstein.
Still today the Duke of Lichtenstein owns a big palais in Vienna, and I may highly recommend to see his famous art gallery in "Palais Liechtenstein" !!

For more infos and pics of Lednice - click on my link below !

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/22aaf8/

Valtice / Feldsberg - south of Brno / Brünn

Valtice / Feldsberg is in a distance of just 7 Km from Lednice castle and the road between the 2 castles is the old alley dating back to the time, when the castles were built.
The Liechtenstein family owned the castle for more than 550 years.
Johann Fischer von Erlach was one of the most famous architects of his time.
(some of his most famous buildings are :
Karlskirche, Böhmische Hofkanzlei, Palais Trautson and Schönbrunn castle in Vienna and Kollegienkirche in Salzburg)
In 1725 he started to reconstruct the castle of Valtice / Feldsberg in his typical baroque style.
The castle will still need some repairs on the facade, but inside it looks great already and a part of it is used as a hotel - see my hotel-tips !
On my picture-combination : the castle taken with my extreme wide-angle lens and the townhall below on the left.

For more infos and pics - just click on my link below !!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/60d96/

Lysice - 25km north of Brno / Brünn

Lysice castle once belonged to Erwin Dubsky, an early globetrotter of the 19th century and all over the castle you may see souvenirs from his travels as a vice-admiral.
The village of Lysice is rather small, but the castle is well worth a visit, especially as it is beautifully restored and looks great with it's wonderful garden and an interesting castle-interior.

Photography inside the castle
is possible against a fee of 200 Kronen (6,5 €)
Visiting Lysice will take a bit more than 1 hour for the guided tour through the castle.

Marie von Ebner Eschenbach ( born as Countess Maria Dubska ) was the niece of one of the owners of the castle.
You may see an exhibition about this famous austrian Novelist in one of the buildings outside of the castle, in combination with a collection of clocks.
The enrance-fee for this museum is 20,- Kronen ( ca. 0,70 $ )

For more infos and pics - just click on my link below !!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/628e0/