Night-time guided tours at Lysice chateau

Night-time guided tours at Lysice chateau

Lysice chateau, photo: Kirk, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported

Last weekend, the administration of the Lysice chateau in South Moravia organized for the first time night-time guided tours of the chateau. More that 550 tourists could admire interiors on the first floor of the building where there are representation halls, libraries and an armoury. The chateau employees said visitors' interest was immense, that's why they are preparing further night guided tours for the beginning of August and September. The guides were dressed in period costumes and they played several scenes from the life of former chateau-owners. The programme also included period dance performance and a fencing duel. Visitors had called for night tours for a long time, but the main problem was that the chateau was not electrified. Conservationists recently succeeded in lighting up at least the first floor, the second floor - with chambers of former owners - is only open for visits during the day. The Lysice chateau is visited by some 40,000 people a year, and during the summer months there is jousting by knights and concerts. This year's novelty is the staging of several plays by Shakespeare performed by the Lysice amateur theatre troupe. The chateau was built in the 16th century on the place of a medieval fortress. It belonged to many noble families - the last one, the Doubsky family, lived in it for over a hundred years, till 1945.

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The town hall in the West Bohemian town of Ostrov nad Ohri is carrying out renovation of the town's precious historical monument - the chapel of Virgin Mary of Einseideln which is just about to be finished. The works lasted almost seven years and cost eight million crowns. The chapel, which will again serve church purposes, will be consecrated by the Pilsen bishop Frantisek Radkovsky on September 8th. However, concerts and exhibitions on a small scale will also be held in St. Mary chapel. The chapel was built in the beginning of the 18th century by Michael Ludwig Rohrer on the order of German countess Sybilla Augusta as a copy of the chapel in the Swiss pilgrimage site of Einseideln. It was there, that the countess went to asked for recovery of her little son, who recuperated after a long illness. A similar chapel is in the German town of Rastatt. The two towns have been twinning since the early 1990s, and part of the funds raised for the renovation of St. Mary chapel in Ostrov was donated by the Czech-German Future Fund.