Lednice

Lednice (Eisgrub) is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,300 inhabitants. It is known as part of Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Administrative parts
The village of Nejdek is an administrative part of Lednice.

Geography
Lednice is located about 7 km northwest of Břeclav and 45 km south of Brno. It lies in a flat landscape in the Lower Morava Valley. The Thaya River flows through the northern part of the municipal territory. Stará Dyje and Zámecká Dyje, which are canals of the Thaya, also flow through the territory.

There are several large fishponds. Their territory, together with the immediate surroundings, is protected as the Lednické rybníky National Nature Reserve.

History
The first written mention of Lednice is from 1222 under its Latin name Izgruobi, as a property of the Sirotek family. In the mid-13th century, it was passed into the hands of the House of Liechtenstein and its fortunes had been tied inseparably to the members of this noble family.

Economy
Lednice is known for viticulture and wine-making. The municipality lies in the Mikulovská wine subregion.

Transport
Lednice is the terminus of the short Břeclav–Lednice railway line that operates only on weekends.

Sights
In 1996, the Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "an exceptional example of the designed landscape that evolved in the Enlightenment and afterwards under the care of a single family." Lednice contains a palace and the second largest castle park in the country, which covers 170 km2.

The Lednice Castle was originally a Renaissance villa. In the 17th century it became a summer residence of the ruling Princes of Liechtenstein. The estate house, designed and furbished by baroque architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Domenico Martinelli, and Anton Johan Ospel, proclaimed rural luxury on the grandest scale. In 1846–1858, it was extensively rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style under the supervision of Georg Wingelmüller.

The surrounding park is laid out in an English garden style and contains a range of Romantic follies by Joseph Hardtmuth, including the solitary 60 m high minaret from 1802, which is the tallest outside the Muslim world.

Notable people

 * Princess Aloysia of Liechtenstein (1838–1920), Catholic worker
 * Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein (1840–1929), monarch