Veveří Castle

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Veveří Castle
Aerial view of the Veveří Castle

Aerial view of the Veveří Castle

Creation time : first mentioned in 1222
Place: Veverská Bítýška
Geographical location 49 ° 15 '23.9 "  N , 16 ° 27' 44"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 15 '23.9 "  N , 16 ° 27' 44"  E
Height: 254  m nm
Veveří Castle (Czech Republic)
Veveří Castle

Veveří Castle (German Eichhorn Castle ) is a castle in South Moravia , Czech Republic . It is located 12 km northwest of Brno ( city ​​center ) on the Brno reservoir .

legend

According to tradition, Prince Konrad of Brno, belonging to the Přemyslid family , got lost around the year 1059 while hunting during a thunderstorm. He prayed and promised to build a chapel and a castle if he got away safe. Thereupon he found the hut of a poor charcoal burner in which he could spend the night. The prince paid the charcoal burner and had a castle and a chapel built on the site of his salvation. While he was thinking about what to call it while walking under the castle, a squirrel threw a cone on the prince's head, whereupon he came up with the idea of naming the castle Veveři ( veverka - “squirrel”).

history

In its largely preserved form, the castle with its fortifications by entrenchments , moats and bastions dates from the middle of the 13th century. It was built as a Bohemian royal castle. The palace has a ridge tower. The early Gothic castle chapel of the Virgin Mary stands apart on the site of the former outer bailey. The 14th century picture of the Madonna of Veveří can be seen in the Diocesan Museum in Brno .

In 1802 the textile manufacturer Wilhelm von Mundy bought the castle with the associated lordship and the Ritschans estate . Johann von Mundy and his wife took their seat in the castle. Their son Jaromír von Mundy was born on Eichhorn. It later became the summer residence of Prince Gustav von Wasa -Holstein-Gottorp, whose daughter, later Queen Carola of Saxony , spent her childhood here.

In 1896 the castle became the property of the English nobleman Maurice Arnold de Forest . His childhood friend, the future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , visited Veveří Castle three times. In 1908, Churchill, then Minister of Commerce, and his wife Clementine spent part of their honeymoon at the castle.

The castle has been owned by the state (then Czechoslovakia ) since 1925 and is currently being extensively renovated. From 1942 to 1945 it served the German troops as a Wehrmacht and SS hospital.

photos

literature

Web links

Commons : Veveří castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jarmila Davidová, Dušan Riedl: Brno. Brno. History, information, sights. Olympia, Praha 1992, ISBN 80-7033-206-9 .
  2. Website of the Diocesan Museum Brno with description of the picture