The National Wine Centre - Salon of Czech Wines

This year, the Czech Republic celebrates the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of its first monuments on the UNESCO List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Come and discover 12 true “jewels of the world”.

Historic Prague

There is a reason why Prague is often called one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with an unequalled charm. And how could it not be, as it is interwoven with a plethora of myths, legends and stories passed on over centuries. Here you will find exceptional monuments of all architectural styles. The Old New Synagogue, St. Agnes Convent and Prague Castle, including the St. Vitus Cathedral, are all worth seeing. During the summer tourist season, you will surely be charmed by Prague Castle’s freely accessible gardens. Nor should you forget to visit one of the taverns of Old Prague to quench your thirst with a pint of excellent Czech beer.

Functionalist Brno

Following extensive renovations, as from this February the Tugendhat Villa – a gem of international functionalist architecture – is once again one of the main tourist attractions in the city of Brno. In addition to the main living quarters, you also will be able to tour the truly unique technical floor featuring the air conditioning engine room, a moth-free room for fur cloaks, and servants’ apartments. The outlying garden also underwent a complete revitalisation, offering an attractive view of the city and its many other tourist attractions.

Ecclesiastical Olomouc

For church tourism enthusiasts in particular, we recommend a visit to Olomouc, where, among other sites, you can see the Holy Trinity Column. It is an exceptional piece in the context of European baroque architectural and sculptural works – unique for its height, decorations and combination of materials. Some sculptural decorations are from stone, while others from gilded copper. A small chapel is hidden inside the column. When you are standing in front of this monument and admire its majesty with your own eyes, it will surely take your breath away.

Fairy-tale Český Krumlov

In this small town in South Bohemia, you will feel as if you have entered a fairy tale. The extensive chateau complex and unique medieval town houses will invite you to wander through streets filled with romantic nooks where many galleries and taverns can be found. In the chateau park, you will discover a theatrical rarity – a revolving auditorium. Or perhaps you may be tempted by a raft ride along the Vltava River winding below the city walls and offering an entirely different view of the town.

Rural Holašovice

Whosoever has some connection with the countryside must include the village of Holašovice on their visit to the Czech Republic. Located in the picturesque landscape of South Bohemia 18 kilometres from the city of České Budějovice, its spacious rectangular central square features 23 protected heritage medieval farmhouses with a total of 120 buildings connected by enclosing walls with gates and arched entrances. Together they represent the most important monument of the so-called “rustic baroque”. If you come here between 20 and 22 July, you can even attend traditional rural festivities whose atmosphere will take you back several hundreds of years.

Flowering Kroměříž

This town, referred to as the Athens of Haná, offers many interesting sites in a small area. The largest attraction is the Archiepiscopal Chateau with its outlying Flower Garden. The unparalleled beauty created by the combinations of colours will persuade you that gardening is not only a beautiful craft, but can also be an important art form. During 3–6 May, the chateau will hold the traditional Days of the Estates, when tours of the historic halls will be enlivened by firefighters, gamekeepers and soldiers who will tell you share with you information you would not otherwise know about the chateau of Kroměříž!

Silver Kutná Hora

With its history of silver mining and coin minting, this city has since long ago been called the silver treasury of the Kingdom of Bohemia. The city is dominated by a church dedicated to the patron of miners, St. Barbara, constructed over the course of more than 500 years. A visit to the Czech Silver Museum will provide you a wealth of interesting information, and for a time you can even experience life as a mining gnome.

Romantic Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape

This landscape area has been connected with the house of Lichtenstein for centuries, as they invested a fortune into the formation of this cultural landscape. At the Valtice and Lednice chateaus you can tour luxurious interiors and wander through extensive parks. You also will certainly be enticed by a romantic cycling trip to its slightly less grand structures, such as the Temple of the Three Graces, Jan’s Castle and the Obelisk. Valtice to this day hides a treasure in its cellars – the Wine Salon, with some of the best wines from the Czech Republic. Likewise, Lednice holds the international competition of ice and straw wines.

Musical Litomyšl

The city’s dominant feature is the Renaissance chateau with over eight hundred sgraffiti. When you see this jewel, you will surely be tempted to stroll the historic streets ending in the Cloister Gardens. There, you can have a rest and remember the local-born Czech composer, Bedřich Smetana, in whose memory a musical festival is held here every year.

Picturesque Telč

You will surely fall in love with this town as soon as you take a tour through the downtown. The burghers’ houses were constructed according to an integrated plan, so their arcades and facades form a resplendent unified whole. Moreover, a tour of the Renaissance chateau with the nearby park offers you an unforgettable experience. Telč is located in the south-western tip of Moravia, halfway between Prague and Vienna, and it should definitely not escape your attention during your visit of the Czech Republic.

Mysterious Třebíč

In Třebíč, a unique former Jewish ghetto has been preserved that is among the important centres of Jewish culture in Moravia. You can best come to know the city’s atmosphere by taking a walk through the crooked alleys with their mysterious passages and nooks. Another precious monument in this city is the three-nave St. Procopius’ Basilica which is a distinctive example of the Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles.

Santini’s Žďár nad Sázavou

The pilgrimage St. John of Nepomuk’s church on Green Mountain is among the true jewels of the city and entire Czech Republic. It was built by one of the greatest architects of the Czech baroque, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. This edifice especially stands out when seen from a bird’s eye view. The walls around the church area trace the shape of a ten-pointed star, while the church itself was built in the shape of a five-pointed star. You can admire additional historic buildings as well as modern buildings of contemporary architecture if you follow the Santini bike trail through the beautiful landscape of the Bohemian–Moravian Highlands.

A Rich Wedding Table

You will remember the atmosphere of your honeymoon venue for the rest of your life. All the colours, the view of the window, your joint experiences as well as all the flavours and smells of all the delicacies served at your wedding table will be etched into your memory. What are the specialities the Czech Republic has in store for you?

Apart from the famous traditional Czech dishes, such as beef with cream sauce, potato pancakes or pork with sauerkraut and dumplings, you may also enjoy a delicious tomato sauce or dill sauce, roast duck, yeast or cottage cheese fruit dumplings, a tripe soup, sweet potato “gnocchi”, Linzer cakes, and various types of goulash and roasts. Many a sweet-toothed traveller would certainly be more than happy with such a rich offer, but travelling in the Czech Republic can be very well accompanied by typical regional specialities. Get prepared for a wide range of hearty soups and sauces, South Bohemian carp and venison, the renowned Czech dumplings as well as sweets, desserts and various cakes and pies.

In Czech pubs you will also have an opportunity to try other specialities, such as pickled sausages with onion and spices, pickled blue cheese or the “Olomoucké tvarůžky”, a typical Moravian mature cheese. It is served with caramel and whipped egg whites flavoured with caraway seeds as part of a seven-course tasting menu in a highly acclaimed restaurant called Dégustation Bohême Bourgeoise. The restaurant is situated in the heart of Prague and offers traditional Czech specialities made from prime products from Czech organic farms and small farmers.

Good Food Goes Hand in Hand with a Good Drink!

You can savour the best the Czech Republic has to offer - on your honeymoon and other occasions. Czech beer is one of the most renowned and demanded throughout the world. In the Czech Republic you can try beers from major breweries such as Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen, Budvar and Starobrno but you will also have an opportunity to choose from special beer produced by dozens of smaller breweries that mostly have their own restaurants. If you are interested in beer with a history, you will find it for example in the Prague brewery of U Fleků, brewing special strong dark lager of its own since 1499. Apart from the brewery and restaurant, you can visit the local beer museum and also see a cabaret show. Another legend is the U Pinkasů restaurant, tapping beer for some 300 years. It has five stylish rooms spreading over three floors and its garden, situated next to a historical church, has an extraordinary, even magical atmosphere you should definitely not miss! The restaurant has been visited by countless people famous around the world.

However, Czech wine does not lag behind either: if you want to discover its magic, you should travel to South Moravia in particular, with grapes grown since the times of the Celts and a wine-growing tradition that ranks among the oldest in Europe. You can taste the top hundred Czech wines in the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic, a permanent wine-tasting exhibition taking place in the cellar of the monumental baroque chateau of Valtice.

Herbal Liquor and Crystal Glass for Spa Guests

You will know Karlovy Vary as a renowned Czech spa town, but apart from hot and cold mineral springs it is also famous for the production of a herbal liquor called Becherovka. Sometimes it is referred to as the “thirteenth healing spring of Karlovy Vary”. When, in 1965, the actual thirteenth healing spring was discovered in Karlovy Vary, it was not labelled by the appropriate number because the number thirteen already belonged to Becherovka.

The popular herbal liquor was conceived and produced by a Karlovy Vary pharmacist Jan Becher according to his own secret formula two hundred years ago. You can visit a museum that was founded in the house where Becher's descendants built the first factory producing the liquor in large quantities. You will learn a lot about the history, production and storage of the well-known beverage and the tour includes tasting in the museum bar.

Whether you try unique delicious dishes or fall for Czech beer, Becherovka or South Moravian wines when visiting the Czech Republic on your honeymoon, you can bet that your Czech-style romance will be an amazing and unforgettable experience.

The Lednice-Valtice complex is known as the Garden of Europe. It is probably the most extensive landscaped area in the world, recorded among the UNESCO monuments. Apart from the residences of the Liechtenstein family in Lednice and in Valtice, other follies can be found here, for example chapels, colonnades, man-made ruins and a victory arch.

Whereas Lednice Chateau modified in a neo-Gothic style served as a representative summer residence, the family residence was the Baroque Chateau in Valtice. The Baroque and Rococo fittings of the interiors provide some idea of how wealthy aristocrats lived in the 17th and 18th century. However, the Lednice-Valtice complex also offers other interesting places, for example a tour of the man-made ruins known as Janohrad, The Temple of Apollo, the lookout Minaret in the Lednice chateau park or the Temple of Diana in the form of a victory arch.

Lednice Chateau is the most-visited monument building in Moravia. The last reconstruction work in the middle of the 19th century gave it the appearance of a Romantic neo-Gothic palace surrounded by an extensive park. Other attractions here include the unique chateau greenhouse, boat trips, delicious wine and procedures in the new Lednice Spa.

You should also not let the imposing Mikulov Chateau escape your attention with its several museum exhibitions. A rarity here is constituted by the cellars with their wine presses and a giant barrel.

What you have to see…

Lednice Chateau – an aristocratic residence in the style of the English Tudor neo-Gothic, the one-time residence of the Liechtenstein family. Apart from the representative interiors, you can also visit a man-made dripstone cave with an exhibition of monsters, and the Malawi aquarium can be found in the Baroque stables. The chateau is surrounded by a decorative garden with historical greenhouse and English park with a lookout Minaret and the man-made ruins of Janohrad are located nearby.

Valtice Chateau – the Baroque residence of the Liechtenstein family. The cour d’honneur with riding hall is one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind in the whole of the Czech Republic. The chateau cellars are home to the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic exhibition of degustation.

The Temple of Apollo near Lednice – this temple to the god of the sun, located above Mlýnský fishpond, dates back to 1817 and is the work of the architect J. Kornhäusel. In the centre of the terrace held up by Doric columns, is a semicircular alcove with a relief of the god Apollo on a sun chariot.

Reistna Colonnade – a monumental Classicist building located above Valtice, decorated with figures from ancient mythology. A view opens up from the roof terrace onto three countries – Moravia, Austria and Slovakia.

Other follies in the Lednice-Valtice complex – Border Chateau (a Classicist building on the historical border of Moravia and Lower Austria), Fishpond Chateau (the first biological research station in Moravia was created here in 1926), Temple of the Three Graces (a Classicist covered colonnade with sculptural group of ancient goddesses, sculpted from a single lump of stone), Chapel of St. Hubert (a neo-Gothic chapel in the middle of a forest clearing), Temple of Diana otherwise known as Rendez-vous (a monumental building in the form of a Roman victory arch with interiors open to the public).

Mikulov – a town with a Baroque chateau, many burgher houses and valuable collection of Jewish monuments, the Church of St. Anne, one of the oldest loretas in the Czech lands (1623), was rebuilt into the tomb of the Lords of Dietrichstein. Stations of the Cross lead from the town to Svatý Kopeček with the Church of St. Sebastian.

Did you know that…

Only in Valtice can you visit Wine Salon of the Czech Republic

No lover of wine should miss out on a visit to the monumental chateau in Valtice. This is to say that the period chateau cellars are home to Wine Salon, a permanent degustation exhibition with hundreds of the best Moravian and Bohemian wines.

The collection is selected every year in terms of the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic competition. Wines entered into the Salon competition may only be made from domestic grapes and must undergo a system of nomination exhibitions. Hundreds of wines thus every year gain the right to mark their bottles with “Wine Salon of the Czech Republic” and gain a place of honour in the exhibition. During the tour, you can individually taste all of the exhibited samples or choose one of the degustation programmes guided by a sommelier.