As their hilltop castle became increasingly obsolete, the Dietrichsteins had the monastery rebuilt as an Empire style chateau (in the years 1819-1826). The monumental three-storey, four-winged chateau came into the ownership of the Mensdorff-Pouilly family in 1856, but in 1948, the building was nationalized by the new communist government and put to use as a school and museum.

The chateau was returned to the Mensdorff-Pouillys in the restitution of the early 1990s, and remains open as a museum demonstrating the life and customs of the ruling noble landowners of centuries past.

The ticket office is on the ground floor and the museum takes up the entire four wings of the first floor. At the beginning of the guided tour you’ll be supplied with the old-fashioned over-slippers that were once almost mandatory in museums to preserve both peace and parquetry.

One of the first rooms visited by the tour is the library; three of its four walls are completely covered with shelves of antique leather-bound books as far as the ten-foot ceiling, and the centre of the room is taken up by two colossal globes representing the earthly and heavenly spheres. Further rooms showcase such things of interest as some of the earliest wallpapers in the land, reconstructions of opulent baroque furniture, portraits of the many members of the noble families and their forefathers’ victories in various battles, and historic costumes in the ladies and gentlemen’s dressing rooms. The most notable of the historic artifacts are the oldest globe (of the world) in Moravia, and a primitive but clever projector for puppet theatre which was a gift from Queen Victoria of England.

The real highlight of the tour though, is a reenactment of a duel between a man and a woman in the main dining room. Both actors are dressed in period costume and use apparently live blades to settle their differences. The duel lasts at least five minutes including the verbal hostilities and challenge at the beginning and several sharp-tongued interludes during pauses of the sword play. This was also the part of the tour that I found the chateau’s No Photography policy most regrettable.

When the actors disappear to their dressing room, it’s on to see one of Europe’s first reticulated heating systems, some amazingly intricate parquetry flooring, music room with grand piano and harp, and children’s room with monstrous teddy bears.

Except on Mondays, the chateau is open to visitors May through September from 9am to 5pm. A full-price ticket is 60Kc, reduced is 35kc, and the family ticket is 155Kc.

The first part of the castle that you will see is the Renaissance entry-gate. The most recent part of the castle (late 17th-century), it is also the most thoroughly restored and now houses the ticket office, refreshment kiosk and a small museum. The museum includes copies of the carved gravestones of the Zastrižl noble family and a copy of the famous Boskovice bible, which was one of the first to be translated into Czech. Perhaps the most interesting display in the museum however is the scale model of the castle as it would have appeared at the peak of its useful life in the early 1700s.

Once through the entry gate, you’ll walk up a long incline to the inner core of the castle, the Gothic palace building. The remnants of the palace walls gracefully reach to the third of the palace’s original four stories and hold brick and stone window frames, fireplaces, chimneys and an ingenious rubbish chute. The underground rooms of the palace are also accessible. Most are empty stone cellars, but one contains portions of sculpted stone portals and gravestones, and the water-cleaning room shows the system used for filtering rainwater. Visitors to the castle are free to explore the ruins at their leisure and the dangerous sections all have wooden guard-rails erected. The views over the town and the forest are exceptional, and it’s difficult to imagine a prettier place for a picnic than one of the grassed upper courtyards.

The large courtyard immediately below the inner palace also holds several exhibits of interest to visitors. The mock execution stage has a working rack, gallows and noose, and several nasty looking contraptions designed to press iron spikes into human flesh. The well and its huge buckets and chains are also preserved, and pheasants, goats and guard dogs are housed in the stables that run along the inside of the defensive wall.

There are no other buildings close to the castle, and it’s easy to imagine yourself armed with musket or bow high in one of the towers on the lookout across your master’s lands. It’s certainly one of the most atmospheric and interesting ruined castles in the country, yet remains largely unknown to foreign tourists.