Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii, iv
Reference 763
UNESCO region Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 1996 (20th Session)

The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (also Lednice-Valtice Area or Lednice-Valtice Complex, Czech: Lednicko-valtický areál) is a cultural-natural complex of 283,09 km² in the Czech Republic, South Moravian Region, close to Břeclav and Mikulov.

The Lednice-Valtice Area is registered in the list of monuments protected as World Heritage by UNESCO next to another site – Pálava Landscape Protected Area, registered by UNESCO only a few years prior to the nearby Pálava Biosphere Reserve. Such close proximity of two landscape systems protected by UNESCO is world-unique.

History and description

in 1249, the House of Liechtenstein acquired a castle in Lednice, which marked the beginning of their settlement in the area. It would remain the Liechtensteins' principal residence until 1939. At the end of the 18th century, the Liechtenstein family began to create a unique manmade landscape complex: The Lednice – Valtice Area. During the 19th century, the Liechtenstein family continued transforming the area, which has since been called the "Garden of Europe", into a large landscape park with two centres:

In 1715 these two localities were connected by the so-called Bezruč Avenue. There is also one more village – Hlohovec. Between Lednice, Valtice and Hlohovec, the Lednice Ponds (Lednické rybníky) are situated, together with Mlýnský, Prostřední, Hlohovecký and Nesyt Ponds. A substantial part of the complex is covered with pines called the Pine wood (Boří les), and partially with a riparian forest adjacent to the River Dyje.

The Liechtenstein family opposed the annexation of Czech Sudetenland by Nazi Germany and as a consequence, their properties were confiscated by the Nazis, with the family leaving for Vaduz in 1939. After World War II the family made several legal attempts to have the property returned but it passed into possession of the Czechoslovak government. The Communist regime did not want to return large estates to aristocratic landowners. After the Velvet Revolution the family made renewed legal attempts at restitution, which have all been turned down by the current owner of the property, the Czech state. [1]

Except for the buildings mentioned above, there are a lot of bigger or smaller pavilions scattered throughout the whole complex, often serving as hunting lodges.:[2]

The Colonnade in Valtice

Preservation

The garden follies and the conservatory of Lednice Park were included in the 1998 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund for their deteriorating condition, the result of insufficient financial resources.[3] The Fund had previously studied the preservation of Lednice and Valtice Castles and after 1998 helped restore the Valtice Rendezvous folly as a demonstration project with support from American Express.[4]

Photogallery

Notes

  1. ↑ "The former Liechtenstein possessions of Lednice-Valtice". Minor Sights. September 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  2. ↑ The term zámeček (German: Schlösschen, literally a small château), is here translated usually as a (manor) house – or a hunting lodge (Czech: lovecký zámeček, German: Jagdschlösschen), if it served for hunting.
  3. ↑ World Monuments Fund – Lednice and Valtice Cultural Landscape
  4. ↑ Elaine Louie, New York Times, "Saving Endangered Art and Architecture," June 25, 1998.

See also

References

External links

Media related to Category:Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 48°46′32.988″N 16°46′30″E / 48.77583000°N 16.77500°E