Plumlov Castle

Plumlov in the Prostějov district is today a château and a national cultural monument. However, its beginnings belong to a castle, which according to archaeological findings arose at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It was possibly founded by Nicholas the First of Opava. Premysl Otakar the Second is also considered a founder, but this is contradicted by the small dimensions of the castle and its structural arrangement with a bergfried.

After 1310, Nicholas the Second of Opava sold the castle and its domain to King John of Luxembourg. He sold them in the years 1322 to 1325 to Vok of Kravař. The Lords of Kravař held Plumlov until 1466, when the line died out in the male line. The castle was then acquired by Jan Heralt of Kunštát, and after his death in 1490 by Vratislav the First of Pernštejn, the husband of Heralt's daughter Ludmila.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance château. However, the Pernštejns built a new residence in Prostějov and due to financial difficulties neglected Plumlov. Its decline was completed by a fire in 1586. It was not until Prince Charles of Liechtenstein undertook repairs. He had arcades built in the courtyard and modernized the fortifications. In 1619, the castle was plundered by the Estates army, and during the Thirty Years' War it was taken by the Swedes, burned and destroyed. After the war it was repaired only provisionally.

Jan Adam Ondřej, the son of Charles Eusebius of Liechtenstein, wanted to build a new residence in Plumlov. His father was an amateur architect and designed the building in a mannerist style. He was inspired by the book The Rules of the Five Orders of Architecture by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. Plans according to his instructions were drawn by the princely carpenter Johann Distler.

Construction began in 1680 on the southern part of the outer castle fortifications. Jan Adam preserved the dimensions of the building, but changed the internal arrangement and on the first and second floors created dining rooms across the full width of the building. He personally supervised the work while spending his honeymoon here with his wife Erdmunda of Ditrichštejn. However, he simplified the project and economized, replacing sandstone with brick and stucco, and this brought him into conflict with his father. In the summer of 1681, he left Plumlov.

After his father's death in 1684, he interrupted the expensive construction. The unfinished château received a roof in 1685 and work began on the interior. The stucco decoration of the façade was to be carried out by Giovanni Brentani. He was, however, dismissed, and most of the stuccos in the interior were then created by his assistants Perri, Trabello and Quadri.

The old castle buildings were only demolished at the beginning of the nineteenth century.