History

ORIGINS OF HISTORY

It was built on the site of a former castle from 1275-1285. The castle was built by the nieces of Kojata of Hněvín Most, Eufemie and Svatochňa.

Around 1290, the castle was seized by the robber knight Friduš of Linava, whose domination over the region was reportedly ended in 1312 by John of Luxembourg with his army, who partially demolished the castle during its conquest. There is a mention of this in the Zbraslav Chronicle.

FIRST TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

However, it was soon restored and from 1346 it was held by the Lords of Lipá. Soon it was acquired by the Lords of Šternberk and from 1381 its part was held by Petr of Kravaře. In the family of the Lords of Kravaře, it remained even during the Hussite Wars and became a base for the Hussites. Therefore, in 1422 it was besieged and conquered by the army of Olomouc Bishop Jan Železný. In 1434, Petr of Konice sat in the castle and in 1448 Vok V. of Holštejn. After the death of Jiří of Kravaře, Račice fell to Václav Černohorský of Boskovice, who married his daughter Kateřina.

RENAISSANCE 

In 1468, during the Czech-Hungarian Wars, the castle was occupied by the soldiers of Matthias Corvinus. The Boskovice family held the castle until 1568, when the estate was bought by Hanuš Haugvic of Biskupice.

He was one of the three owners who had a fundamental influence on the appearance of the Račice estate in history. He had the castle, which had lost its defensive significance, rebuilt into a Renaissance chateau. He added a northwestern wing and complemented the ground floor of the courtyard with arcades.

PETŘVALDŠTÍ FROM PETŘVALD

In 1590, Hanuš Petřvaldský of Petřvald became the owner, one of the richest feudal lords of Moravia at that time. Hanuš gave the chateau a late Renaissance character. He raised the arcades by one floor, roofed them with a shed roof, had a fountain built in the courtyard and had representative interiors decorated by carvers and stucco workers. As a participant in the rebellion against the Habsburgs, which ended in defeat at White Mountain in 1620, Hanuš was imprisoned, his property confiscated and later sold below value to families loyal to the Habsburgs. The owners of the chateau changed without affecting its appearance until 1830 when the chateau complex was purchased by textile magnate Baron Jan Mundy.

JAN BARON MUNDY

He had the northwestern wing of the chateau demolished and then rebuilt, raised the arcades in the courtyard to the current 3 floors, had them bricked and fitted with large windows. The chateau towers were given a Biedermeier coat. The wooden paneling of several salons from the time of Baron Mundy’s activity has been preserved to this day - you can see everything as part of the tour.

SCHÖLLER

The last pre-war owner was Vienna industrialist Philip von Schöller. His predecessor, Paul Eduard von Schöller, had a considerable amount of kitschy over-decorated interior decorations from the time of Jan Mundy removed and made the chateau a very tastefully furnished residence, which he used for social gatherings with friends, guests and business partners, especially on the occasion of hunts in the adjacent forests.

WAR AND POST-WAR PERIOD

In September 1938, during general mobilization, the chateau became the headquarters of the Czechoslovak Army General Staff. From mid-September 1938, the Czechoslovak general staff met here and intensively prepared plans for the defense of Czechoslovakia against the expected attack of the German Hitlerite army. However, the Munich Agreement of September 29th thwarted all plans, so the army general staff ended its activities in Račice after only two weeks.

After the war, OP Prostějov, a primary school, a vocational school and a children’s home successively used the building. The children’s home’s activity was terminated in 2014, after which the chateau was unused for more than 2 years. In 2017, the Brno company e-Finance, a.s. bought the chateau in an auction from its then owner, the South Moravian Region.

PRESENT 

The company e-Finance, a.s. has established accommodation facilities with tourist-type rooms and apartments for 109 guests in the forecastle and directly in the chateau building. In the summer of 2020, the chateau was opened to the public for the first time in history. During the summer holidays, visitors can take a guided tour of the former representative spaces of the chateau, refresh themselves in the courtyard or use tourist-type accommodation directly at the chateau.

Book accommodation