User:Olaf 432/Lednice (Chateau)

Lednice Chateau (das Schloss Eisgrub in German) is located in the municipality Lednice on the right bank of the river Thaya, approximately 12 km east of  Mikulov, in the  South Moravian Region. Lednice was acquired by the Liechtenstein family in the 13th century. It was in their possession for about 700 years.

The contemporary form of the castle originated in the 19th century. At the time the chateau has undergone a vast reconstruction in the Tudor Gothic revival style. The origins of the chateau however, reach back into the 16th century when the original gothic stronghold was torn down and replaced by a renaissance style chateau. The chateau has undergone a significant reconstruction in the late 17th century, when it was rebuilt into a baroque style by the notable architects Domenico Martinelli and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. A garden existed around the chateau from the 16th century onward.

History
The first written record of Lednice is in a manuscript of the bishop of Olomouc Robert from the year 1222.

At the time, Lednice belonged to Adamar and Lipert von Eisgrub, local rulers which probably built the local stronghold. The stronghold was supposed to guard a strategically important crossing of the river Thaya. They however did not hold it for long, as the Bohemian king Wenceslaus gave Lednice to Sigfried Wais. In the year 1322 Ortlin Weis ceded Lednice to Johann von Liechtenstein. The rest of the Lordship of Mikulov, under which Lednice belonged at the time, was gained by the Liechtenstein family in the year 1370. Lednice remained under the Liechtenstein family – with a short interruption between the years 1571–1576, until the year 1945, as a fiefdom at first (1322–1582), later as property.