Kroměříž - Tour of the city 2

The starting point for our tour will be the information centre (1) on Velké náměstí, from where we walk towards the Archbishop’s palace (2). As well as guided tours of the castle we can also visit the picture gallery or the castle tower with its look-out point. From the castle we pass by the Archdiocesan grammar school (3) and into the gardens. We pass the Archdiocesan wine cellars (4) (established in 1266), which are certainly worth a visit. We can then take a walk around the park or have a turn in a rowing boat, which can only improve the visit. After a short stop at the Bishop’s mint (6) we walk up through the town to the Květná zahrada (7) (Flower garden), where two greenhouses, a labyrinth and a Foucault pendulum hanging in the rotunda are all awaiting us. In the western part of the garden we can play with echoes in the 244 metre-long colonnade by Giovanni Pietro Tencalla. This is also where the tour ends, and we return from here back to the centre and Velké náměstí.

Maybe you were unaware that...

• The Bishops of Olomouc minted their own coins and for this purpose Cardinal Dietrichstein established a new mint near to the castle. From 1614 they minted groshen, tolars and ducats and in the 1770s the first gold medal was struck here. Since then many other portrait, enthronement, indulgence and occasional medals have first seen the light of day here. All the coinage has been collected over the years and today it can be seen at the exhibition in Kroměříž castle. After the Vatican it is the largest such collection in the world.
• Today in the former Franciscan monastery and later also vinegar works we can find unique mosaic lunettes created by Max Švabinský, a graphic artist and painter from Kroměříž. Originally they were meant for the loggia in the northern facade of the National Theatre in Prague. The motifs on the lunettes are based on Czech history and on the final one there are images of persons who were associated with the establishment of the National Theatre.