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There is more to the Czech Republic than just Prague! The country’s smaller towns have plenty to
offer visitors, who will be impressed by their well-preserved historical centers and carefully
maintained monuments whose importance often transcends regional borders. Some of these towns were
declared urban monument reservations or even included on the UNESCO List of World Cultural
Heritage.
Český Krumlov is a unique architectural jewel, whose importance is underlined by the fact that it was included in the UNESCO List of the World Cultural Heritage in 1992.
Above the meanders of the river Vltava a unique complex of municipal housing developed, mainly in the 16th century, along with an extensive castle and chateau complex, the second largest in the country after...
Located roughly alfway between Prague and Krakow, Olomouc boasts a concentration of Baroque architecture second only to Prague.
Olomouc was founded as a royal town near the river Morava in the early 13th century. The history of settlements here is much older. In the mid-11th century a Przemyslid castle is mention; the Moravian bishopric was founded here at that time. There are...
The second largest town in the country and Moravia’s traditional capital, Brno was also the historic seat of the Přemyslid dynasty. King Wenceslas I awarded Brno municipal status as early as 1243.
The city’s skyline is dominated by the Špilberk castle, where an early-Gothic palace with two chapels is still standing. Later on, the castle was converted into a baroque fortress, and in the 19th...
The West-Bohemian metropolis with 170,000 inhabitants is the fourth largest city in the Czech Republic. Its historical predecessor was a former watch castle dated from the 10th century on the place of the recent Starý Plzenec. The pre-Romanesque Rotunda of St. Peter dates back to that period.
In the late 13th century, a new royal town ground plan was built on the confluence of four rivers –...
České Budějovice was founded in 1265 on the confluence of the Vltava and Malše rivers by King Přemysl Otakar II. The city has a chessboard layout. The 13th-century Dominican monastery with the Cloister Church of the Sacrifice of the Virgin Mary features important Gothic frescoes, which were discovered only recently. Not far from here, the Renaissance-era Butchers‘ Shops (Masné krámy) provide a...
Reflected in the surface of placid ponds, the picturesque town of Telč is a true real pearl of the Vysočina region. The ancient royal water fort was founded here in the 13th century on the crossroad of busy merchants´ routes. Besides the monumental Renaissance chateau with an English park, the most significant sight is the town square – a unique complex of historical houses in the Renaissance...
Hradec Kralove is among the oldest Bohemian towns. It was built on the place of an old Slavic settlement and historical sources date it back to 1225. In the Middle Ages it was a dowry town of Czech queens. From the 14th century the brick Cathedral of the Holy Ghost has been preserved, while the neighbouring White Tower was built in the 16th century.
In the period of Rococo the town...
Litomyšl received town status as early as the mid-13th century, and its importance was strengthened 100 years later by the establishment of the second bishopric in Bohemia. The town is characteristic by its elongated street-square surrounded by rows of burgers’ houses; the most significant one is the Renaissance house “U rytířů” with valuable stone-carving decoration.
The main...
Emperor Josef II founded this town near Litoměřice in the late 18th century. It is an outstanding example of a military fort in the style of Classicist architecture. The complex consists of three parts – the main fortress with the garrison town, the so-called Small fortress and the Upper and Lower “Water gates”.
The garrison town has a regular ground plan with a central town square and a...
Literature lovers know Lipnice nad Sázavou as the place where author J. Hašek lived the last years of his life and where he wrote his most famous works, The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk. Its house with exhibits is located directly beneath a rocky ridge, on which one of the largest Czech castles was constructed at the beginning of the 14th century.
The main attraction of Kroměříž, the town nicknamed the Athens of Hanacko, is its archiepiscopal chateau, which along with the chateau gardens and flower gardens are on the UNESCO list of worldwide cultural and natural heritage sites. For hundreds of zears, the chateau served as a residence for the bishops of Olomouc, and a series of important events occurred within its walls. There are also many other sites worth seeing in Kroměříž, such as the pontifical mint, featuring a collection of church issued coins and medals, the Baroque Church of St. John the Baptist with its interior in Rococo style and the house with a Renaissance entrance section on Velké náměstí square, which houses exhibits of the Kroměříž Museum and a monument to Max Švabinský.
Rock, pop, jazz, metal, hip hop... Audiences at summer open-air festivals will enjoy these and other genres. The schedule of events taking place under the open sky this year is once again truly great, and music fans thus can look forward to an eventful summer. 
