Znojemský hrad - Zámek Znojmo
Znojmo Castle is a castle rebuilt into a chateau in the city of Znojmo. The preserved appearance is mainly the result of Baroque modifications carried out in the eighteenth century. The castle grounds are protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.
The castle in Znojmo was probably built after 1092, when the independent Znojmo estate was created. At the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was rebuilt in the style of high medieval castles. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the castle was occupied by the followers of Margrave Prokop, who successfully defended themselves in 1404 during a siege by Duke Albrecht of Austria and King Sigismund.
The royal castle was often mortgaged to noble owners, including Albrecht of Leskovec or Zdeněk of Roupov, from whom it was confiscated after the Battle of Bílá Hora for participating in the Estates Uprising. After 1710, Maximilian of Deblín had the old castle rebuilt in the Baroque style. After the violent death of the last member of the family, the castle was converted into a military hospital. During the adaptation, it acquired late classicist facades. Later, a large part of the castle grounds was damaged by the construction of a brewery.
The oldest construction phase of the castle is the rotunda of St. Catherine, built in the first half of the twelfth century, but the appearance of the rest of the buildings at that time is unclear. At the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the promontory was separated by cutting a ditch and a cylindrical tower (bergfrit) with a diameter of eleven meters, a palace and a Romanesque chapel with an elongated apse were built in the castle core. Of these, only the chapel and part of the palace`s perimeter wall have survived in the castle`s masonry. An octagonal Romanesque tower stood at the gate to the outer castle, which collapsed in 1892. The tower evidenced the contact of the castle builders with the architecture of the circle of Frederick of Štauf.
The bergfrit was lowered before 1523. Other parts of the Gothic and Renaissance buildings, which were in very poor condition during the Baroque reconstruction, have been preserved in the castle`s walls. During this reconstruction, the buildings were united into three Baroque wings with short extensions at the ends.
