Hrubšice Chateau Audio guide

A Renaissance seat on the site of an older fortified residence

Hrubšice Chateau stands on the eastern edge of the village of the same name, now part of Ivančice in the Brno region. It is a historic monument that clearly shows the shift from a smaller noble seat to an economic and administrative center. A fortified residence was already mentioned here in 1555, and in the second half of the sixteenth century a Renaissance seat for the Lords of Lipá began to take shape.

Between 1558 and 1598, Hrubšice was an independent estate, separate from the Moravský Krumlov domain. The building was probably also based on the structure of the older fortified residence, and its completion is dated to after 1600. Even then, however, it had already lost its original residential function and served mainly as the estate office and later also as housing for officials.

The appearance of the complex

Originally, it was a three-winged building with an open courtyard facing south. The surviving arcades in the north and east wings recall the Renaissance idea of a representative yet practical country seat. The courtyard is entered through a passage with a rusticated portal in the north wing. The south wing was added later, probably in the eighteenth century, when the layout was closed into its present four-wing form.

The main value of the chateau today lies above all in its historical importance. It recalls a time when the Moravian nobility relied on smaller estates whose purpose was not only residential but also administrative and economic. Today the chateau is privately owned and protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.