The exceptional position where Znojmo Castle is situated provided suitable environment for people as early as in the 4th millennium B.C. From the late Bronze Age, there is an important find of a depot of 70 pieces of bronze talents. The promontory was probably an ancient cult place and it was not by chance that in the 2nd half of the 11th century it was chosen by the Moravian and later Bohemian duke Conrad I and his son Luitpolt as a place for construction of a new castle from wood and clay. Until that time, the Moravian Přemyslids ran the Znojmo region from the nearby Hradiště of St Hippolytus. The new castle was more defendable and it protected better the old merchant route leading from Austria past Kraví hora / Kuhberg and the Dyje valley to the northeast. In the 1st half of the 12th century, the castle suffered from disputes between the Bohemian and Moravian Přemyslids. At that time there was a mint there which minted coins for the Znojmo principality. The castle was a residential seat of Moravian margraves Conrad Otto and Vladislaus Henry who rebuilt the castle in its stone form and fortified it with thick walls and an unconventional octagonal tower, the so called Robber Tower (which collapsed in 1892). After the Znojmo principality ceased to exist at the end of the 12th century, the castle was administered by burgraves or castle wardens and later royal commanders. The king Ottokar I of Bohemia I founded the first chartered city in South Moravia at the forefront of the castle between 1222 and 1226. The castle was often visited by Bohemian rulers who were passing it on their way from Bohemia to Austria and was a place of numerous diplomatic negotiations. For example in 1335, the king John of Bohemia married his youngest daughter Anna with the Austrian duke Otto IV the Merry here. During the Hussite wars Znojmo castle was a stronghold of the king, later emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, who died here in 1437. However, starting from the 2nd half of the 15th century, the castle was often pledged and bought out by the monarch. Between 1529 and 1530 the queen Mary of Hapsburg, the widow after Louis II of Hungary lived there. A few years later, at the time of increased danger from Turkish attacks, the castle was found to be in a very bad condition and therefore upon an order from the Moravian Land Diet it was repaired and fortified. After the Bohemian revolt was suppressed, in 1621, the castle was confiscated from the lien holder Vilém of Roupov. After a fire in 1630 it was partially repaired as a land fortress but its significance and maintenance quickly declined. At the end of the 17th century it was almost in ruins. Based on a decree from the emperor Joseph I from 1709, the rear part of the castle was given as a fief to the counts of Deblín. The front part of the castle including the rotunda and the Robber Tower and stables was purchased by Znojmo burghers who opened a brewery there in 1720. The Deblíns had the old castle palace behind the moat demolished and in its place they built a new Baroque chateau between 1711 and 1721 with a courtyard facing the Dyje valley. When in 1784 the count Josef of Deblín died without a male heir, the chateau passed to the emperor again. The inventory was soon sold and the empty building was then used as occasional barracks and a military hospital during the whole of the 19th century. In 1910 a part of the building and after 1922 the whole building of Deblín manor was adapted by the City of Znojmo for the museum. The Entrance Hall of the chateau was decorated with frescos by Jan Michael Fisée (1686 - 1732) in 1720. In the window reveals there are portraits of Bohemian and Moravian monarchs and in the medallions under the dome there are Hapsburg monarchs from the 15th century until 1720. The figures of the women in the dome represent Allegory of Concord and Fame of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown ZNOJMO CASTLE Znojemský Hrad Znojemský Hrad Znojemský Hrad Znojemský Hrad Znojemský Hrad The castle was founded at the end of the 11th century after the Moravian Přemyslids, Conrad I and his son Litold, transferred the seat of their administration from the opposite Castle of St. Hippolyte. Open seasonally Tel: +420 Znojmo Castle street Hradní, Znojmo