OPPORTUNITIES FOR APPRECIATING BEAUTY

Moravská Třebová was founded around 1257 by Boreš of Rýzmburk as a typical colonisation city with a regular town square layout. Its period of greatest prosperity occurred during the reign of the Lords of Boskovice and Ladislav Velen of Žerotín (1486-1622), when Moravská Třebová was a centre for humanist education and acquired the nickname the “Moravian Athens.” It was during this time that one of the oldest surviving Renaissance monuments north of the Alps was built: the château portal from 1492. In the city centre, one can admire the late-Gothic and Renaissance maashauses, whose quality and number of preserved artefacts have no equal in the Czech Republic. Unlike the maashauses, the Renaissance façades of the houses were destroyed in fires in 1840 and 1844; however, several portals and a Renaissance oriel have survived. A number of valuable works of art date back to the Baroque, when exceptional artists such as J. T. Supper, J. Pacák and others worked in the city. Due to its singular collection of architectural treasures, Moravská Třebová became an urban conservation area in 1980. The city’s tour circuit begins at the municipal museum and ends on Křížový vrch Hill.

CHÂTEAU

Originally a castle from the late 13th century. Its reconstruction as a Renaissance château was commenced at the end of the 15th century. In 1611-1618 Ladislav Velen of Žerotín expanded the building with a late-Renaissance arcade wing. A large section of the château burned down in a fire that swept through the city in 1840. Elements that survive to this day include Renaissance arcades, the tower, an early Renaissance gate from 1492 and the medallions of Ladislav of Boskovice and Magdalena of Dubá, some of the oldest Renaissance artefacts in the Czech Republic. The château was renovated in 1996. Five permanent exhibits await you at the château: the Medieval Torture Chamber, Master Bonacina’s Alchemist Laboratory, the Treasures of Moravská Třebová, Life in the Country and a geological exhibit entitled The Colourful Planet.
Contact: www.zamekmoravskatrebova.cz

MUSEUM

The building in which the museum is housed was completed in 1906 with financial support from wealthy Moravská Třebová traveller and native, Ludwig Holzmeister.

Museum of an Egyptian Princess, or a Trip Around the World

Allow yourself to be enticed by a trip around the world. The brand-new exhibit at the Moravská Třebová Museum makes such a journey possible. Experience the excitement of discovering far-off lands together with traveller Ludwig Holzmeister, a former patron of the museum. You can see the unique historical collections that he brought home with him from his travels, including items from India, Burma, Tibet and Japan. Rarities in the collection include four samurai swords, one of which even features a blade that dates back to the 15th century and is protected by a Japanese komusō monk. Samurai swords on permanent display cannot be seen anywhere else in the Czech Republic.

The apex of your experience, however, will be meeting Egyptian princess Hereret, who lived in Thebes over 2,500 years ago. Thanks to computed tomography and 3D technology, you can see what she actually looked like. She was the first mummy in the Czech Republic for which experts created a 3D visualisation. You can also view the sarcophagus with its mummy as well as animations of her face.

FRANCISCAN MONASTERY AND MONASTERY CHURCH

The monastery and the church were completed in 1690 with the financial support of the domain owner, Johann Andreas of Liechtenstein, and was dedicated to Saint Joseph.  It is a simple structure reminiscent of the austere buildings of the Baroque Capuchin Order. Including those in the Chapel of Saint Peter, the church has a total of eight altars. The most significant work is the statue of Saint Joseph from 1712 situated above the entrance to the monastery, which is the work of sculptor Georg Anton Heintz. The monastery is home to a historical library with valuable volumes. One can admire a historic well from 1704 in the courtyard of the monastery. Across the street stands a former nun’s convent from 1845, which housed an institution for educating young women.

CITY WALL BASTIONS, FORTIFICATION REMAINS

The fortifications date back to the early 16th century; originally, they are comprised of a moat, higher exterior and lower interior fortification walls, eleven bastions, and city gates. Only fragments of the walls and three bastions have survived to the present day.

BURGHER HOUSES

The heart of the city boasts a unique series of original Gothic and Renaissance burgher houses built from stone and brick after the large fires in the city in the 15th century. The ground-floor foyers (maashaus) in particular have beautiful groin and diamond vaults, ribs, keystones, and corbels. Some of the houses also feature portals bearing the coats of arms of the Lords of Boskovice and of Lipá; the construction of these houses was supported by the owners of the domain.

PLAGUE COLUMN

In the centre of the town square stands a plague column built in 1719-20 to commemorate the plague epidemic that took the lives of 900 people, almost half of the town’s population at the time. Olomouc sculptor Jan Sturm designed the column and its sculptural decoration.

TOWN HALL

A late-Gothic building from around 1520, reconstructed in the Renaissance style around 1560. The second floor was built in 1824. The building boasts surviving cross and rib vaults, keystones, polychromatic ribs, Renaissance corbels, stone portals, and the rear wing features arcades and a sgraffito façade. The mayor’s office—formerly the councillor’s hall—features an original Renaissance fresco depicting the Judgement of Solomon from around 1560. The town hall’s tower from 1521 is a curiosity—it was completed in 1764, and does not have foundations.

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY PARISH CHURCH

The original Gothic church from the 13th century was surrounded by a cemetery and the chapels of Saints Anthony and Margaret. The cemetery was closed around the year 1500 and was relocated to Křížový vrch Hill. After a fire in 1726, the church was reconstructed in the Baroque style. The interiors boast an extensive array of Baroque sculpture and ornamental painting, which is dominated by the statues of Faith and Hope by Moravská Třebová sculptor J. F. Pacák, a student of the famous Matthias Braun, painted frescoes by J. T. Supper and his son, Silvester, an altar painting by Joseph Reinisch, and fragmentary remains of the exterior and interior frescoes of J. T. Supper in the Loretta Chapel.

LATIN SCHOOL

On the exterior side above the windows are seven Renaissance stone plaques with Latin and Greek texts. Inside is a large room with a beautiful groin vault ending in corbels with educational Latin texts and the name of the school’s principal, Paulus Eckelius, as well as the date 1566.

STONE BRIDGE WITH FLOOD PLAQUES

The bridge on Jevíčská Street is formed by a dike for the cascades of several fish-ponds beginning south of the château and continuing all the way to the other side of town, to Nové sady. The beginning of the bridge features the sculpture series, Rozloučení s Pannou Marií (Farewell to the Virgin Mary), reportedly by Moravská Třebová sculptor J. Pacák from 1722. The sculpture series was to be a part of a Stations of the Cross from the parish church to Křížový vrch Hill. The bridge also features stone plaques with a description of the aftermath of two great floods in 1663 and 1770 that ruptured the dams of the ponds near the city and caused flooding. The plaques and their text were commissioned by the Lichtensteins.

STAIRCASE OF THE DEAD (SCHODY MRTVÝCH)

The covered staircase features a portal that bears the emblem of the Lords of Boskovice and the quote “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord”. The staircase was built during the reign of Jan of Boskovice and leads to Křížový vrch Hill.

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

The Baroque statue series, the Three Crosses with the figures of the Virgin Mary, St John and two angels are the work of sculptor Jíří Pacák from 1730-40. The Stations of the Cross are made up of four Baroque chapels built around 1723 that were to be a part of the great Stations of the Cross route beginning at the parish church and ending at the Calvary on Křížový vrch Hill.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE HOLY CROSS CEMETERY CHURCH

The lapidarium in the Empire-era mortuary includes a number of notable Renaissance tombstones from the turn of the 17th century. These primarily include the tombstones of Protestants that were removed during the re-Catholicisation following the Battle of White Mountain and were subsequently used as paving stones in the church. The cemetery is also home to a number of graves of Russian emigrants, mostly from the ranks of the nobility, who worked at the Russian grammar school in the city in 1922-35.