Visiting Valtice Castle – One Of The Best Czech World Heritage Sites

Valtice Castle is part of one of the most intriguing UNESCO World Heritage Sites in  Central Europe. It’s part of a unique landscape with two palaces (both usually called Castles) and several monuments spread across 200 square kilometres of Moravian countryside, close to the Austrian border.

The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is a combination of two estates of the Dukes of Liechtenstein. The aim was to bring the two together into a harmonious whole,  with avenues linking the two Castles and drawing on several different architectural styles. Influenced by English romantic ideals. The first of the two castles to be completed was Valtice, one of the finest 18^th-century Baroque Castles in the Czech Republic. The Gothic Revival Lednice Castle nearby was completed in the mid-19th century.

You could comfortably see both of these Castles in a day, and do so by bicycle, bus or car. In this guide I show you what there is to see in Valtice Castle, the town around it and some of the monuments of the World Heritage Site dotted around the countryside. I also explain how to get to Valtice from several cities and towns, and suggest places to stay in Valtice and where to eat there. I hope you find it helpful.

Valtice is around a hundred years older than Lednice Castle, which was completed in the mid-19^th century.

Valtice is at the southern end of the Liechtenstein estate, around 7 km (4 miles) southeast of Lednice and 2 km from the border with Austria.

Several other monuments that are part of the World Heritage Site are close to the town of Valtice. These include the Reistna Colonnade, a memorial built by Jan Josef I of Liechtenstein to his two brothers and father, and Diana’s Temple, a triumphal arch that served as a meeting place for local hunters. Many of these were added in the 19^th century.

There was a castle in Valtice (known as Feldsberg in German) as early as the late 12^th or early 13^th century.

It was acquired by the Liechtenstein family late in the 14^th century, and held by them until the end of the Second World War in 1945, when their estate was seized by the Czechoslovak state.

The Baroque palace was begun by Prince Karl I in the early 17^th century, and continued under his son and successor, Karl Eusebius. He employed Italian architect Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla, who also worked on the nearby Church.

Work on the Baroque Palace continued well into the 18^th century, mainly under the aegis of architect Anton Johannes Ospel, who also contributed the triumphal avenue connecting Valtice with the other Castle at Lednice.

The Castle was badly damaged in 1945 by Soviet prisoners of war, who were subsequently all shot by the Red Army for being ‘traitors’. Restoration work began in the 1970s.

The Lednice-Valtice estate is the cause of one of Europe’s least-known but longest-running diplomatic disputes. When the Czech Republic was declared in 1993, Liechtenstein refused to recognize it, finally doing so in 2009. In 2003, the Czechs refused to recognize Liechtenstein as a state (a fait accompli since 1806). Although they now recognize each other, Liechtenstein made a representation against the Czech Republic to the European Court of Human Rights in 2020.

Two tours are conducted around the main body of Valtice Chateau – the ‘Grand Representation Tour’ is the basic introductory visit, and the ‘Princely Apartment Tour’ which takes you around ten refurbished rooms on the first floor. These are available between May and early November.

Tours are conducted in Czech only, as is often the case in many castles in the Czech Republic. You are given an English text so that you can follow the gist of what the guide is saying, but the guides often tend to expand on what’s written with anecdotes. It’s not ideal. Some guides speak English and tell you everything in the language as well as catering to the Czech visitors. But I wasn’t so lucky at Valtice.

The tours take you around a series of rooms, all sumptuously decorated and furnished. Bear in mind that photography isn’t allowed on the tours – a pointless restriction.

The Baroque Castle Chapel is the most spectacular space in the Castle, but its opening times do not coincide with the regular tours. I found visiting Valtice quite frustrating as there were several things you couldn’t see which many visitors would love to have included on the tours.

The rebuilt Baroque Theatre has similar opening hours to the Chapel – these are very limited. It’s normally open a few days in July, and on Saturdays between December and mid-March.

Wine lovers shouldn’t miss the Valtice Castle Cellar which was built in 1430. Tours there include wine tasting – usually five different wines from the locale.

The Castle also runs tours to two of the nearby monuments of the Lednice-Valtice Landscape – the Reistna Colonnade and Diana’s Temple, also known as the Rendez-Vous. Their opening hours are shorter than the Castle proper, but both are open most days of the week during the peak summer season. Check the Castle tours page  for information on current opening times.

The most notable sight in Valtice is the Baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which is on the main square. The Reistna Colonnade is a mile away up the hill – you can see both Austria and Slovakia from there. And the Diana’s Temple Rendez-Vous is a similar distance from the town of Valtice.

Lednice Castle is a 15-minute bus ride from Valtice. It’s built in the Gothic Revival style, and part of it reminds me of some of the medieval colleges at the University of Cambridge in England. The interior is stunning, with some exceptional woodwork and decoration.

You can get to Valtice by train, bus, driving, walking or cycling. How best to do so depends on where you’re travelling from.

As for getting around the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape, the best way to do so is by bicycle. Most of the area is flat, except for the hill on which the Colonnade stands.

From Brno

You can catch the train from Brno main station (Brno hl n) to Břeclav, then catch another train to Valtice mesto.  The journey time including the transfer is 1 hour 25 minutes.

Valtice is a popular place to stay, with many coming to sample the local wine as well as the World Heritage Site. An unusually high number of places to stay are rated ‘wonderful’ or ‘exceptional’, and here is my pick of them:

**** – Hotel Salety – excellent hotel at the foot of the short flight of steps up to Valtice Castle – an outstanding location

****  – Penzion Valtice – superb guesthouse on the town’s main square, opposite the beautiful Baroque church there; they also have an in-house restaurant, and there’s a great pizzeria next door

*** – Penzion Prinz – another very highly-rated guesthouse at the entrance to the main square, a two-minute walk from the Castle

My top recommendation in the area is the sublime town of Mikulov, less than ten miles from Valtice. It stands very close to the Austrian border, its Castle a hugely impressive sight looming high above the surrounding town.  It has some extraordinary buildings from the Renaissance period, and a rich Jewish heritage. I rate it one of the best border towns in Europe to visit, and it’s worth going well out of your way to see it.

Between the Reistna Colonnade and the border is the fascinating Iron Curtain Museum. It’s easy to forget that this bucolic wine-growing area was once an important Cold War outpost, with electrified fences keeping Czechoslovak citizens confined within their national border.  It’s a pity that their opening hours are so limited.

They’re open March to October, but only daily in the peak July-August summer season. In March, April and October they are only open on weekends, and in May, June and September they’re open Fridays to Sundays. Unfortunately we happened to be in town on a Thursday in September, so it wasn’t our lucky day!

Other than that, the Lednice-Valtice UNESCO site is little more than an hour from the Czech Republic’s second city, Brno. The capital of Moravia deserves two or three days of your time – check out my articles on the Villa Tugendhat, a World Heritage house in the city suburbs, my feature on the remarkable Brno Ossuary, and my guide to spending one day in Brno.

There are also plenty of other day trips from Brno if you’re considering using the city as a base for exploring the region.

Visiting Valtice Castle – Final Thoughts

Things To Do In Český Krumlov – one of the most beautiful small medieval towns in Europe

Telč Czech Republic – tiny country town with one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe

Holašovice – perfectly preserved ‘folk Baroque’ village in South Bohemia

Slavonice – border town with amazing Renaissance-era sgraffito houses

České Budějovice – beautiful, utterly underrated capital of South Bohemia

Things To Do In Kutná Hora, two cathedrals, the bone church and the silver mine that made the town rich

Kutná Hora Bone Church – the astonishing art of the Sedlec Ossuary

Karlštejn Castle – the most formidable castle in Czechia, built to house the Bohemian Crown Jewels

Things To Do In Mariánské Lázně – part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site