The Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž form the complex of the former episcopal and later archiepiscopal residence in the town of Kroměříž in the Zlín Region. It consists of the castle and two gardens, the Flower Garden and the Garden Below the Castle. According to the National Heritage Institute, the present appearance of the castle is the result of a radical rebuilding in the second half of the 17th century.[1]
Castle
In the mid-13th century, Bishop Bruno of Schauenburk raised Kroměříž to the status of a town (1261) and had a castle built there. The chateau itself was not created until the time of Bishop Stanislav I Thurzo (1496 to 1554). During the Thirty Years' War it was considerably damaged by Swedish troops.[1]
Bishop Karel II of Liechtenstein-Castelcorn, working with the architects Filiberto Lucchese and Giovanni Pietro Tencalla, had the damaged chateau rebuilt into a Baroque residence. The reconstruction took place between 1686 and 1698. The bishop also repaired a large part of the town, founded a mint, and equipped the chateau with an extensive library. He left his successor a diocese free of debt and economically prosperous.[1]
A picture collection was established in 1673. Karel II of Liechtenstein-Castelcorn expanded the group of paintings already present in the chateau by purchasing significant works and, in particular, entire collections. According to the Heritage Institute, the castle's picture gallery is, after the National Gallery, the second most important collection of paintings in Czechia.[1]
In June 1748 the chateau and Bishop Troyer were visited by Empress Maria Theresa, whose favourite confessor and confidant the bishop was. She spent three days in Kroměříž with her husband and court and inspected the Russian army, which was marching through Morava (river). In 1752 the town was struck by a massive fire, which destroyed the entire second floor and part of the first floor of the chateau, the manor stables, the vicars' and canons' houses, and 86 burgher houses.[1]
The repair of the chateau lasted from 1752 to 1772 under Bishops Troyer, Egkh, and Hamilton. The residence then received new fresco decoration by the Brno painter Josef Stern and the Austrian master F. A. Maulbertsch. The Great Dining Hall, known as the Assembly Hall, was also created at this time, rising, owing to the fire, more than two storeys high.[1] Bishop Maxmilián of Hamilton hosted Emperor Joseph II at the chateau.[1]
In 1777, at the request of Maria Theresa, the Diocese of Olomouc was elevated to an archdiocese by a bull of Pope Pius VI, and the first archbishop became Count Antonín Colloredo.[1] In the autumn of 1848, the Constituent Imperial Diet of the Austrian nations was moved from Vienna, where revolutions were taking place, to Kroměříž. Brno had originally been considered, but it was not deemed safe enough.[1]
Flower Garden
The first phase of construction of the Flower Garden took place between 1665 and 1675. It was created outside the fortifications of the town at that time, on infertile, marshy ground, and was originally called Libosad. It is an early Baroque garden, combining Italian and Dutch influences. It was designed by the Italian architects Filiberto Lucchese and Giovanni Pietro Tencalla.[1]
Garden Below the Castle
The Garden Below the Castle was founded in 1509 and, over several centuries, reached an area of 53 hectares. From its original form as a vegetable and fruit garden, which also included a small game reserve and an ornamental section with water features, it became, in the 17th century, a Baroque garden under the design of Filiberto Lucchese. In the 19th century it was transformed into a landscape park, and today more than 200 species of rare trees from Europe, America, and Asia grow there.[2]
Under Bishop Karel of Liechtenstein-Castelcorn in the second half of the 17th century, a famous period of flourishing and expansion of the garden began. Alongside other buildings, the bishop focused on the creation of two ornamental gardens, Libosad and the Garden Below the Castle.[2] After the elevation to an archdiocese in 1777, a new form of the garden was created between 1790 and 1800, combining a formal Rococo parterre with a naturally composed park and numerous curious structures in Greek, Chinese, Turkish, or Pacific styles.[2]
The most radical rebuilding came in the first third of the 19th century under Archbishop Ferdinand Maria Chotek. Together with the architect Anton Arche, he prepared the transformation of the sentimental garden into a romantic park based on the ideas of the German prince Hermann von Pückler. Chotek did not live to see its completion, and the work was continued by his successor Maxmilián Josef Sommerau-Beckh. The garden therefore bears the hallmarks of a romantic relationship to nature both in the park's concept and in Arche's neoclassical buildings. In the second half of the 19th century, further minor modifications were made, the most successful of which was the rebuilding of the chateau portico and a new monumental staircase, which serves as the second entrance to the garden.[2]