Bystřice pod Hostýnem Château
Bystřice pod Hostýnem Château stands in the centre of the town below the Hostýn Hills, about 34 km north-east of Kroměříž by road. A Renaissance château was built on the site of an original water fortress and was gradually rebuilt by its later owners.
In 1827 the estate passed to the Loudon family, to which the famous Austrian commander Gideon Ernst Laudon belonged, and they held it for over a hundred years. In 1897 Emperor Franz Joseph I stayed at the château, watched military manoeuvres from here and also visited Svatý Hostýn. From the 1930s until 1990 the army used the château as a store; in 1991 the town took it over and has been gradually repairing it.
Today the château houses the exhibitions of the Town Museum: ceramics, the Bystřice guilds, historic bentwood furniture and Napoleonic soldiers. A guided tour devoted to the last Loudons is also available. Most of the château park belongs to the army and is not open to the public; you can at least see the cast-iron statue of General Laudon from outside.
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