Gardens and Castle at Kromeríz

There are a lot of castles in the Czech Republic, many of them included on the World Heritage List, and it leads to inevitable comparisons once you've visited them all. While I'll discuss the others in their own reviews, my view of Kromeriz Castle is that it's not the most impressive overall - but it does have the most interesting interior of them all.

The decorations in the rooms give a real sense of the grandeur of the castle and its residences. Dozens of mounted animal heads in the games room, a large collection of artworks from the 15th to 18th century (said to be the second best gallery in the whole country after the National Gallery in Prague), and the beautiful library with tens of thousands of books.

As discussed by previous commenters, it's the baroque Pleasure Garden that is the most significant part of this site from the perspective of OUV, but I think the castle is still a very rewarding part of the visit. There's certainly a lot more to see in the castle than the garden (and is a much more pleasant experience on a cold and rainy day). For tourists who don't visit any other Czech castles from this period, I think it will be memorable.

The castle can only be accessed by tour, and it's hard to get details of the tour timings on the website. My advice would be to head to the castle first to find the time and …

Because of my decision to re-visit all the sites on the Czech list, I traveled to Olomouc and Kroměříž in July 2020, OK, not only of that but also to meet old friends and enjoy the summer time… Besides the separate WHS the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, these two towns have a lot of things in common, and my visit to ecclesiastic district in Olomouc (the Archbishopric Palace, the crypt in the Cathedral with coffins of bishops active also in Kroměříž such as Karel II Lichtenstein-Castelcorn) was very helpful to put what I have seen in Kroměříž into the context.

The castle in Kroměříž with the castle garden was very recently returned to the archbishopric see, and old-new owner already started with extensive reconstructions of the castle garden (revitalization of ponds and water canals), and some reconstructions and changes of the visitor routes are planned also for the castle (construction of new expositions in the Mill Gate and in the gothic parts of the castle tower). However, the Pleasure Garden still remains the property of the state of Czechia.

I decided to visit everything possible of this WHS so I joint the following separate tours: in the Castle (i) representative rooms of bishops, (ii) the gallery in the second floor with oils of Titian, A. Gentilesci, among others, (iii) Sala Terrena in the ground floor, (iv) the castle tower with nice views (v) the English park with fountains and Pompeian Colonnade in the Castle Garden that is …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019. I visited Kromeriz early in the morning and honestly I wasn't expecting much more than a pleasant stroll in the flower garden having visited several other inscribed gardens and castles.

The viewing terrace panoramic view (photo) over the flowers and the Rotunda was the highlight during my trip. The flower garden of Kromeriz is a rectangular axial concept established in 1665, featuring impressive geometrical clipped hedges and floral ornaments. The sophisticated visual layout based on symmetry and perspective leads the visitor through the garden as through a mythical labyrinth, revealing original architecture, sculptures, mazes, water elements and garden art. A marble UNESCO WHS inscription plaque can be found next to the flower garden entrance just before the Dutch garden. Even though the flower garden of Kromeriz is very well kept, it is no match for similar gardens in France and Italy and in my opinion lacks any particular OUV. Being relatively close to the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape with rather similar flower gardens doesn't help even though visiting both WHS on the same day, was a very enjoyable day out for my parents, who enjoyed having the tranquil gardens mostly for themselves for most of the time. 

During my ‘Czech 3 castle WHS weekend’ I stayed overnight in Kromeriz. It lies about halfway between Litomysl and Lednice/Valtice, and probably is the nicest of these towns. The hotel La Fresca and its restaurant are warmly recommended anyway. Its menu was only written in the Czech language, probably a sign that not too many foreign tourists stay for the evening and night. My reason for being here of course was the Gardens and Castle in Kroměříž, which have played an important role in the development of the baroque palace and garden design in Central Europe.

The WHS consists of 2 locations: the Castle and its garden (1) and the Pleasure Garden (a.k.a. Flower Garden) (2). Both are walkable from the city square. The locations are well-signposted and even connected to each other via a route with partial WH logos incorporated in the pavement at frequent intervals. I knew beforehand that the castle probably wouldn’t be worth entering (although it houses “a splendid art collection”), so I just focused on both gardens during my 1.5-hour visit on an early Sunday morning.

The garden at the castle opens its gates already at 7 o'clock. So after breakfast, I first went to have a look at that one. It is a landscape park in English style - so 'just' a park that you see in so many places in Europe. It has hiking paths, benches, ponds, and a bridge. There are also peacocks and a kind of petting zoo. I …

After Lednice and Valtice, the second World Heritage Site royal castle of Czechia I visited was Kromeriz, ironically this castle also owned by Liechtenstein family similar to Lednice and Valtice. The castle was located in the city center of Kromeriz which in my opinion a prosperous looking town. At first, I expected a typical design of royal palace with grand entrance next to city main square, but to my surprised, from the city square I could only saw the small portion of the palace complex, well at least its tower was quite striking almost similar to church tower. The palace’s exterior was a tiny poor version of Schonbrunn with similar Habsburg yellow Baroque, while there was no grand entrance or front garden courtyard. As I had no intention to see another baroque palace interior which I heard very similar to Schonbrunn, I directly walked to its rear garden. The garden was nice pure English garden without anything worth to remember especially after seeing a better one in Lednice yesterday.

Then I drove to another part of this World Heritage Site, the Flower Garden called Kvetna zahrada or Pleasure Garden, which located just outside the town center. In my opinion this was the true highlight of this UNESCO site. Behind the wall was the large complex of French styled garden together with many smaller gardens. At first, I went to see small greenhouse which seem to be designed for tourist’s souvenir photo. Then I saw what is called Dutch Garden, …

Kromeriz is one item on the long list of palaces and gardens among the WH sites. The Palace Garden is designed in the style of an English landscape garden and we enjoyed to walk around. There are ponds and a few small buildings, but most of them are in need of restoration. We skipped a guided tour of the castle, instead we visited the Pleasure Garden. The most striking buildings are the Rotunda and the long Colonnade. A staircase leads to the roof of the colonnade, from there you can beautifully admire the flower beds (photo).

The main reason for inscription of Kromeriz is that "the gardens and castle of Kromeriz are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens." I'm not an expert in park and garden design, I just enjoy strolling there, thus maybe I can not fully appreciate the quality of this WHS. But I've seen nothing that I've not seen in other palaces and gardens before, and often more beautiful elsewhere. The market place is truly nice, but that's nothing special in a country full of beautiful town squares (I liked better those in Telc, Olomouc or Cheb). All in all, one of the less rewarding WHS on our trip to Moravia.

Kromeriz is a very pretty and quiet town close to Olomouc, and is very well worth the trip to get there. I skipped the tour of the palace interior (minimum 90 minutes), but just walked through the gardens, which consist of the more nature-like Palace Gardens (lots of ponds) and the formal Flower Garden. This is one of the most famous gardens in Europe, somewhere between a French Renaissance and an Italian Baroque garden. The town itself has a nice main square and a few pretty churches.

I have been many times in Kroměříž, situated on a former ford on the river Morava, near the Chřiby mountains, to visit the huge Baroque castle, constructed in the 17th century for the archbishop of Olomouc Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelcorn on the place of an another castle and projected by Filibero Lucchese e Giovan Pietro Tencalla; it was reconstructed under Maximilian Hamilton in the 17th century, after a fire. It is a free-standing structure with four wings around a trapezoidal central court with three storeys and one attic half-storey. The ground floor is on a platform that compensates the uneven ground, originally surrounded by a moat, filled in 1832. The main facade has eleven window axes, optically prolonged by pilasters, doubled at the buttress corners, with cornice capitals. They are linked by sunken rectangular panels and this decoration is on all the facades. The other fronts have fourteen, thirteen and ten axes. The medieval tower has a drum with a spire. The Conference Hall was for two years the seat of the Austrian parlament and contains 22 venetian chandeliers, gilt allegorical stucco, paintings by Joseph Anton Adolph von Freenthal and a portrait of the arcibishop Kohn by Lászlo Folop. The Vassal Hall was the chapter tribunal and contains the archiepiscopal throne, the court stalls, coverings in false marmor, a neapolitan portrait of the cardinal Schrattenbach and a fresco on the ceiling, masterpiece of Franz Anton Maulpertsch. In the Hunting Room are 41 trophies, catched by the zar Alexander III in …

The Palace and Gardens are a reasonably interesting half day trip from Olomouc. The Palace is just off of the main square and there are regular tours. The interior is pretty a standard European palace, though the library was nice. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the two impressive Coronelli globes, which were the highlight for me.

If you would like a preview of what to expect from the interior this palace was used extensively for the interior scenes of the film Amadeus.

There is an English garden behind the palace which was reasonably nice. A little further out, about a 10 minute walk, are the more formal flower gardens. These were a little more interesting and the Rotunda and colonnade were nice accompaniments to the flower beds.

The train station is a little way from the centre but it is a fairly simple walk to the the attractions.

Overall I wouldn't recommend travelling a long way to see this site, however if you have a half day spare whilst in the area it is a fairly worthwhile trip, but if your time in Moravia is limited I would recommend spending more time wandering aimlessly in the parks and cobbled streets of Olomouc.

An hour's train ride south of Olomouc is the small Czech town with the unpronounceable name Kromeriz. The locals will probably laugh behind your back if you try an English pronunciation but the correct way of saying the towns name is something I leave you to discover for yourself when you approach the small town that was once the Achbishops own town and Chateau, between the 12th and the 19th century.

One of the Chateau's more recent claims to fame is the fact that it figured in Milos Formans film Amadeus and it is no wonder that it some of its rooms and halls was picked as background. Some are absolutely the best of best of baroque architecture and design. Next to the park is the beautiful Podzámecka Garden that unfortunately was quite a wet experience at the time of my own visit. But as the rain passed by and I had moved across town to discover the castles Flower Garden, I was blessed with the sunny side of Kromeriz parks and castle.

Kromeriz is easily accessed by train if you are in Olomouc and is a perfect excursion for a day.