the city hall tower in krnov in early morning light.
on our next day in czechia we awoke early as we wanted to make the most of the day while the weather was still dry and sunny. for later in the day the weather forecast had announced that it would be more of a rainy day. we first decided to check out a look-out tower in a small village nearby, to the west of krnov and by the polish border. from there we would decide spontaneously what we would begin with the rest of the day, depending on how well the weather conditions would hold.
before we started our day trip, though, i poked my head out of the roof window and enjoyed the lovely view, the extravagant rooftops of the city hall and the glimpse onto the old textile factory buildings.
in the back, you can see some of factory buildings and in the front a part of another larisch villa ( the family larisch was one of the families who brought krnov's development forward and founded the textile company karnola ). this villa is called villa hermann larisch and was the head quarter for the company. these days it's part of an archive of the district bruntál, which krnov is situated in.
while the first picture is a zoomed in one, this was the actual view out of my window. still not bad, eh? the yellow building is the archive for the bruntál district, it was also a factory building for karnola textiles.
the look-out tower we chose to visit sits almost directly on the czech and polish border, near the town of město albrechtice overlooking the region around it in a spectacular way. you can see the high ash mountains ( hrubý jeseník ) when you look south, the osoblažsko region in the west and of course the low ash mountains ( nízký jeseník ) into the direction of krnov. the polish county of głubczyce in poland is just on the other side of the border in the north. there is a small pathway leading up to the tower, only 700 meters from the little official parking spot at the foot of the hraniční vrch, the 536 meter high hill on which the look-out tower was situated. from there the walk is not that difficult, albeit a little steep. you can choose to rest every once in a while or try yourself at the keep-fit trail that they set up along the way.
autumn moods everywhere!
a little rest stop shortly before we mastered the final leg of our ascent. that's basically poland you can see here.
mom enjoying the beautiful view.
the look-out tower on the hraniční vrch hill is a rather special one, as it actually consists of two towers. they were transmission towers in a former life, but were unused from 1999 onwards. initially the plans were to tear them down eventually, but the town of město albrechtice asked the telephone company if they could buy the two towers and turn them into a look-out tower. the company agreed to it and in 2011 they opened up the newly designed tourist attraction. only a overhead crossing was added between the two towers and ready it was for the public to take over. the tower is 25 meters high and has 149 steps.
my dad and i made the way up, mom stayed on the ground ( she doesn't like heights too much ^^; ). i absolutely loved the construction and how it looked against the dramatic autumnal backdrop of the mountainous region. the direction you are looking at is towards the high ash mountains.
the ponds you can see glimmering in this picture are various fish ponds on the polish side. the mountainous part of the picture depicts the low ash mountains, basically foothills of the hrubý jeseník. the colour of the local autumn foliage was beyond beautiful.
can you spot the tiny mom waving back up at us? ;)
another shot of polish landscapes ( even though i am not sure if there isn't a bit of czech territory involved as well ).
this picture even shows the shadow of our look-out tower :) the landscape you can see here is called osoblažsko, one of czechia's most sparsely populated settlements. město albrechtice is basically the gateway to this region. there is a narrow gauge trailway leading from here to třemešná ve slezsku, and it's supposed to be a very scenic ride through the landscapes, offering abandoned places, mystical hillsides and tiny villages along the way. we initially wanted to ride that train as well, but it turned out it wasn't in operation during autumn and winter, so we had to ditch that enterprise. unfortunately i have to say, because when we drove back to germany at the end of our vacations we made our way through osoblažsko and were completely smitten with the quiet, melancholic landscapes.
the other side of the tower, direction poland.
the town of město albrechtice and in the far back the high ash mountains. you even can see snow-capped mountain tops if you look veeeery closely.
looking down. for people with fear of heights this look-out tower should probably be avoided. the gridded ground floor was pretty transparent and gave you a very good idea on how high you were standing. i don't have a problem with heights, so the look down was pretty exciting and awesome to me.
it began to drizzle a bit so we decided to head back to the car and make our way to a city about 36 kilometers away...
... to visit a castle, because in case the rain would grow stronger, we would be able to hide inside and learn more about the local history. the castle we chose is situated in the high ash mountains, in a city called bruntál to be precise.
bruntál castle's history goes back to the 14th century, but the foundations of this building began in 1560, when the barons of würben ( wrbno ) initiated the construction. after partaking in the bohemian revolt in 1618 the barons lost their ownership over bruntál and the castle was occupied by the teutonic order which then took renovations and alterations into their hands. the result of those activities is what you see today, the renaissance style of the wrbno barons is still apparent, but also the baroque influence of the teutonic order.
the banana yellow facade was such a good contrast to the greyness of the day.
first, since it wasn't yet raining, we made a round through the castle gardens.
the park is a product of the 18th century, when it was turned into an english landscape garden ( but still retains one area of baroque landscaping as well ).
there were goldfish inside the pond, which you can't really see on this photo 😅
fisher's bastion, a part of the old city walls. they were incorporated into the park structure.
the reverse side of the castle. here you can make out the renaissance tower as well, which resides inside the courtyard. the castle has a unique layout, triangular in shape, but the representative side ( in the front ) of the building is curved in a half circle.
what would a castle garden be without any sculptures? this is the image of neptune, the roman water god.
the statues all depict various roman mythological figures.
fortuna, goddess of luck and felicity.
these church bells were also part of the decorations. engraved in the big one are the german words: peace be with you. bruntál, too, was once under german occupation and the relicts of the past still make that very clear to you. ( by the way, under german occupation bruntál was called freudenthal - which translates into valley of pleasure ).
this strange figure looks like a faun to me, but it's very unclear who it really depicts.
another view from the reverse side of the castle.
this is another part of the old city wall, with incorporated bastion. the door that leads to nowhere is my favourite detail, but also how the rocks were stacked to build the wall! like a puzzle out of dissimilar stones!
this is the baroque part of the park.
the main gate into the castle. by now the weather had turned stormy and wet and cold, so we decided to finally check out the interiors of the castle. we bought some tickets and were given a sheet with german explanations for the whole castle tour and then a young woman lead us through all the visitor rooms, while i narrated everything we saw. let me tell you, it was quite an experience to serve as the tour guide for my parents 😂 i felt transported back to my childhood in which whenever we visited castles or any place that had tour guides running around i would take matters into my own hand and declare loudly that i would be today's guide and then proceed explaining everything to my family, proudly stalking around the grounds and gesturing to details that woke my attention. at some point in my life i wondered if that should be like my true purpose, being a tour guide, until i learned that you need extensive knowledge and need various academic educational degrees under your belt in order to get aknowledged as a tour guide. since i never felt destined to go to university or start an apprenticeship at a travel agency, this way of making a living fell through for me permanently. my knowledge about things also was never deep enough, which can prove difficult when you want to be a licensed tourist guide and not a complete amateur disaster, lol.
anyway, we basically had the castle to ourselves that day, which was awesome as we could take our time, and weren't pressured to hurry up ( which was really nice of the actual tour guide that lead us around ). my parents still refer to this tour as 'the private tour at bruntál castle'. 😅
despite reading information to my parents, not much of that information was memorized in my brains, except that most of the interiors are various collected originals from the 18th and 19th centuries. you can also find many original paintings from different dutch, german & italian old masters in many of the rooms ( which is not something i am overly interested in, as many of those paintings have religious motives and i don't feel too much of a strong connection to these ^^; ). the infos on the sheets given to us were also mostly about various items in the rooms and explained their origins, but not their true meaning to the castle, so that might also be a reason why nothing really stuck in my head, haha. i can better memorize things when there's a story attached to it.
i will try my best though, to at least rudimentarily explain the rooms to you ;)
many of the rooms were beautifully arranged and it reminded me of the german biedermeier era ( where most of the interiors probably originated from ). here's a bedroom... with a white tiger rug as basically the center piece... what is it with these animal rugs? i found a polar bear one at the drachenburg palace in königswinter as well, and much of the interior there also was from the same era. guess that was something the elite loved to have in their homes. while it is a dramatic addition to any kind of interior, i look at these with a sad eye, as it means that these animals once were part of a bigger population of now endangered species... and the reason why they are endangered is because of things like this, the use as decorational elements.
this is the only capture i managed to take from the triangular courtyard, which of course i did a bad job with, haha. you can't really see that it is triangular. but! it showcases the clock tower very well and also the original renaissance architecture. i love the gallery part of it as well!
the castle also has an extensive library, which spans over several rooms. loved this little baby blue set up in the midst of brown tones.
the ovens were also really delicate, made out of porcelain! your gaze immediately got stuck on these whenever you entered a room. this room was used as a study, and boy, i couldn't imagine a better place to go after your studies and learn about things. apparently the teutonic order collected about 23.000 books in the library of bruntál castle!
of course a room full of maps and globes shouldn't be missed. the teutonic order was very well-read and knowledgeable ( most of the interiors stem from their time inhabiting the castle. ) they also were pretty well-travelled, they had branches all over europe, so it's not astonishing that they would also have a map room in their headquarters. oh, and how wonderful are the inlay wooden floors? so exquisite 😍
the desk from before, but this time with a view into another room of the library.
where men were the predominant residents you would always find a billard room. even though i am not quite sure whether the teutonic order was even allowed to play table games ^^; it could also be that it was a later addition, after the order had to leave the building in 1939, when the nazis dispossessed them. what's also very apparent here are the wall paintings with sceneries of ancient rome.
moving on to the rooms that were not used as studies or offices. a perfect little tea party set-up ;)
this room was full of chinese ceramics and faiences. the painting on the wall was also inspired by chinese nature sceneries.
the dining room, with portraits of some teutonic order members on the walls ( visible because of the black cross on their coats ).
all rooms were aligned in such a way that they built a straight line, creating an effect of an endless tunnel.
flower bouquets can be quite an eye-catcher!
this tiny room was a smaller dining room. the softly painted pictures at the wall indicate that the originals are lost for the time being.
a lavish bed room, shining bright because of red velvet. the little wooden screen in the front depicted various nationalities and their traditional apparel. unfortunately my close-up pictures were totally blurred ^^;.
this room was such a gem with it's light green furniture, the white decor and gold elements. rooms like this were basically parlors, places where you could meet up and converse and discuss the days news, happenings or rumors.
i call this room 'blue parlor' in my head, and it's not difficult to see why ;) the roof stucco stood out most to me, but the soft blue tones were also what made this room shine.
okay, there were so many parlours that it was almost ridiculous. but what can you say, the fact that the elite lived in luxurious homes like these basically explains it. who else would need so many rooms that served the same purpose?
and now, probably the most precious jewel of the whole castle, the banquet hall. i mean, come on, this rococo splendor is hard to beat, right?
this ball room is uses for various events today, weddings, concerts, banquets for example. i'd use it as my own private dancefloor if i had the chance ;)
this room was my personal favourite, the interior took my breath away. i loved the impressionist quality to it, like a painting of van gogh, but mixed with expressionist elements of egon schiele. i think it was mainly inspired by far east countries like japan and china, which is also something that attracts me like a moth flying to the light. and the earth-coloured hues of the room, the browns, and dark greens, the yellows and golds and little dots of red, it all reminded me of autumn days. the black cabinets were absolutely exquisite, filled to the brim with delicate bone china. if i had been a resident of the castle in prior eras, this would be were i would spend most of my time in, daydreaming, sleeping, breathing. i always explain places or rooms or things that i feel very attached to as something that my heart can't deny. this is such a thing. this is a heart room.
and it concludes my little castle tour ;)
this was shot down in the thoroughfare of the castle, on the left you see the main staircase which leads you into the palace. the iron gate leads into the courtyard, which wasn't open, unfortunately. i think i would've liked a little glimpse into it again, and take some more and better pictures, but alas, you can't have everything sometimes :)
we decided to search for a cafe and devour some coffee and cake and maybe, if the weather allowed it, take a little stroll through the city.
the building in the middle let me perk up, because it reminded me of bauhaus architecture. i don't know where the architect, robert mildner, took his inspiration from, unfortunately you can only find very little info on him or his life, but this building, a department store from 1934, is imbued by the new modern way of constructing architecture that developed around that time.
the town square with significant pastel-coloured houses framing it. here we found our little cafe, cukrárna alfredo, and had some cake and coffee 😙
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after our coffee stint we continued our way in the city, but the rain increasingly got stronger. we decided to head back to the car and call it a day. on our way there we passed by this church, the parish church of assumption of virgin mary. first built in the 13th century it is the oldest church of bruntál. what really gets your attention is the renaissance sgraffito of the church tower! it looks like the belfry was built out of beautifully milled stones, but when you look closer you actually notice that everything was painted onto the facade. the effect is super awesome.
it really is the most prominent detail of the church. again, we didn't enter this church, and by the time we visited it was probably closed anyway.
we drove back to krnov and had a quick stop at a different church, because my father wanted us to see krnov from above. krnov has its own famous hill, the cvilín, which is 437 meters in height, and on that hill you can find this church of pilgrimage 'elevation of the sacred cross and our lady of sorrows'.
it's been built between 1722 and 1728 by andreas & georg gans ( father & son ), but it has been a place of pilgrimage even before that. in 1684 a minorite brother had opened the first pilgrimage church on cvilín hill, which housed a painting from the 17th century by heinrich täuber that is supposed to have healing power. the painting still exists today and you can find it within the church. however, the first wooden chapel got too small within a few decades so it was decided to build a new one. the baroque church is a masterpiece of that era, a picture-perfect example of this architectural style. around the church, basically arranged in a circle, are stations of the cross, you know, the one that jesus carried on his ordeal path to his death. they tell you the whole legend within 12 stations.
outside you can find this statue of mary, with a sword going through her chest. in the twilight she looked really beautiful.
the front facade.
from the side.
the final station of the cross. my parents peaked in to see the image inside ( all stations sport a painting which describes a certain scene out of the holy cross story.
the last picture of the day was this foggy view on the city of krnov. the view from the cvilín down to the city is quite something, especially with the backdrop of the high ash mountains.
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