South Moravia, castles and vineyards around Brno

Castles, vines and caves around Brno

South of Brno, Moravia slopes gently down towards Austria. The back roads run between fishponds, tree-lined avenues and wine villages. Around Lednice and Valtice, the princes of Liechtenstein shaped a whole landscape: two castles, a park, and follies scattered through the fields and woods.

Further west, the limestone ridge of the Pálava hills rises above the plain. From the ruins of Děvičky, you can see the Nové Mlýny lakes and, below, the villages of Pavlov and Dolní Věstonice. Across the area, whole lanes are lined with wine cellars. In late summer and autumn, people drink burčák, a young wine that is still fermenting.

North of Brno, the Moravian Karst is a land of forests and caves. To the south-west, Znojmo looks down on the Dyje, which separates the Podyjí and Thayatal national parks.

On 26 August 1992, Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar met at the villa to settle the split of Czechoslovakia, which took effect on 1 January the following year.

The centre is easy to explore on foot, from Špilberk fortress, once a prison of the Austrian Empire, to the cathedral on Petrov hill. At the Augustinian abbey in Old Brno, the monk Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of heredity by crossing peas.

The Liechtensteins, from Valtice to Lednice

Long before they gave their name to a principality, the Liechtensteins were Austrian lords. They held Mikulov from 1249 to 1560. Valtice, their main residence, and Lednice belonged to them until 1945. For centuries, the border between Moravia and Austria ran through the middle of the Liechtensteins’ lands. In the early 19th century, they turned the countryside between Lednice and Valtice into a landscape park, with a minaret about sixty metres tall, a Temple of Apollo and a fake ruin. Lednice Castle was rebuilt between 1846 and 1858 in a neo-Gothic style inspired by England. The Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1996.

In 1945, the Beneš decrees confiscated the family’s property, as it was considered German. In 2020, the Principality of Liechtenstein took the dispute to the European Court of Human Rights.

What not to miss

1. 1The Punkva CavesA walk underground to the bottom of the Macocha Abyss, 138 metres deep, then a boat ride out along the underground river.
2. 2KroměřížThe castle of the Archbishops of Olomouc and the baroque Flower Garden, with its 244-metre colonnade.
3. 3AusterlitzThe battlefield of 2 December 1805, its Cairn of Peace and Slavkov Castle, where the armistice was signed.
4. 4MikulovThe castle and its giant barrel from 1643, the Jewish cemetery and the Stations of the Cross on Holy Hill.
5. 5The Znojmo rotunda12th-century frescoes showing the Přemyslid princes; small-group visits from April to October, except when it rains.
6. 6The Hardegg viewpointTwo kilometres on foot from Čížov and its stretch of Iron Curtain, for a view over the Dyje and Austria.

South Moravia in pictures

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The Kraví Hora vineyards and the village of Bořetice in the evening light.

Food and wine in Moravia

Moravia makes most of the Czech Republic’s wine, mainly whites: Grüner Veltliner, Welschriesling and Pálava, a grape bred at Perná, at the foot of the ridge it is named after. The Wine Salon of the Czech Republic fills the cellars of Valtice Castle: you can taste the year’s award-winning wines there.

At the table, you’ll find svíčková, beef in a creamy sauce, served with knedlíky, bread dumplings. Znojmo is known for its gherkins. For dessert, there are koláče, small sweet buns topped with poppy seeds, curd cheese or plums.