Lysice Castle is a Baroque building on the site of a Renaissance water fortress in the South Moravian Region, which was still being altered at the beginning of the 19th century. According to the website of the National Heritage Institute, it stands out for its richly furnished interiors and a unique castle garden with a promenade colonnade and a covered pergola. [1]
Middle Ages and early modern period
The first indirect mention of Lysice dates from 1308 and is connected with Heralt of Lysice and Kunštát. The Lords of Kunštát held Lysice in three branches. The Lysice branch owned it until 1451 and the Lestnice branch until 1490, after which it belonged to the Kunštáts settled at Polná. In 1514 Boček of Kunštát granted privileges to Lysice. Ludvík Zajímač of Kunštát then ceded it to William of Pernštejn, but fifteen years later the Pernštejns sold the estate to Jan Černičický of Kácov. In 1584 Lysice was bought by Hron Březnický of Náchod, a nobleman of the Lutheran confession, and a Lutheran parish is recorded in Lysice in 1606. [1]
The Březnický family of Náchod and the Serényi family
Under Jiřík Březnický of Náchod, and above all under František Leopold, Imperial Count of Náchod and Lichtenburk, the holders of Lysice adapted to the regime the emperors established after the Battle of White Mountain. František Leopold was an adviser to the emperor, a chamberlain and a provincial judge of the Margraviate of Moravia, and among his other estates he owned Lysice as his residence. In 1652 he obtained its elevation to a small town from Ferdinand III. Before his death in 1660 he bequeathed Lysice to his wife Alžběta; in 1675 it was acquired by Jan Arnošt Montrochier, and from him in 1678 by George Szelepcsényi, Archbishop of Esztergom. After the archbishop's death in 1686 the owners became the orphans of Count Jan Karel Serényi. Antonín Amatus, who died in 1738, was expressly named as lord from 1706. The Serényi family owned the estate until 1740, when it passed briefly to the Dietrichstein family. [1]
The Piati family and the peasant unrest
From 1745 the estate belonged to Jan Jiří of Piati and from 1762 to Emanuel of Piati. Under him peasant unrest broke out in 1774, caused by heavy labour obligations. The dispute of the subjects over the rights granted in 1514, confirmed and extended before 1529 and again in 1652, did not subside even after the patent abolishing serfdom of November 1781. In January 1783 the peasants took up arms against the authorities, and the uprising was suppressed with the help of summoned troops. The leaders who did not fall in the fighting were imprisoned for many years. [1]
The Dubský family of Třebomyslice
In 1807 the male line of the Piati family died out and the sole heiress became Antonie, married to a Dubský. Lysice was thus obtained by her husband, Count František Dubský of Třebomyslice, who shortly before his death in 1812 secured a hereditary comital title for himself and his descendants. He came from the old nobility of the period before the Battle of White Mountain. [1]