Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens. They were inscribed in the UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage List in 1998.
Kroměříž was established as a market town at the crossroads of trading routes. At the time of the church colonisation in the first half of the 12th century it became the property of the Bishops of Olomouc. The village was elevated to town status in the second half of the 13th century, but the religious wars of the 14th century inflicted terrible wounds on the town. The year 1848 was a milestone in the town’s history, when the Constituent Assembly of the Austrian Monarchy was transferred here, and a period of progress began which elevated the town to the highest levels of spiritual culture and art.
The castle was built on earlier foundations in the 17th century and represents a uniquely-preserved Central European baroque princely residence. Its neighbouring gardens include the Podzamecká garden under the castle in a natural English-style landscape and the early baroque Flower Gardens.