Chateau Oslavany

Monastery of the Valley of St. Marie, founded in 1225 in Oslavany, was the first Cistercian convent in Moravia. The consecration took place in 1228, was performed by the Bishop of Olomouc, and King Přemysl Otakar I and Queen Constance were also present.

The great decline of the monastery occurred during the Hussite battles, when it was burned down and in 1515 the monastery church burned down and then the nuns moved to Brno. After the complete abolition of the monastery in 1525, the entire estate was bought by the Althans, and during the 1970s, the reconstruction of the dilapidated monastery into a Renaissance-style chateau began.

In 1599, the Oslavany chateau was owned by Wolf Dietrich of Althana, who, however, took part in the estate uprising and the chateau was then confiscated and in 1621 handed over to the Catholic Michal Adam of Althana.

Thanks to the marriage, the chateau was acquired by the Mollart family in 1654, and they sold it in 1712 to the monastery in Old Brno. Jan Nepomuk Scharff made further alterations to the chateau during the 18th century, and after the Josephine reforms in 1783, the chateau became the property of the Imperial Chamber.

The last aristocratic owners were the Gomperz family, who had gardens built around the castle. From the beginning of the Second World War, the castle housed the German army, and in the period after the war, the premises served as a warehouse. The chateau was already relatively devastated at that time and reconstruction awaited it only in 1997, when it had been the property of the town of Oslavany for 4 years. Today, an exhibition of firefighting equipment, energy and mining is located in the chateau.

Oslavany Castle is a relatively large Renaissance building with a preserved Gothic monastery church and arcaded courtyard, which is one of the largest in the Czech Republic.

Author: Andrea Štyndlová