Veveří Castle
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Native name Czech: Hrad Veveří |
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Veveří Castle
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| Location | Brno, (formerly Veverská Bítýška) |
| Coordinates | 49°15′24″N 16°27′42″E / 49.25667°N 16.46167°ECoordinates: 49°15′24″N 16°27′42″E / 49.25667°N 16.46167°E |
| Built | 1213–22 |
Veveří Castle (Czech: Hrad Veveří, German: Burg Eichhorn) is an originally ducal and royal castle some 12 kilometres (7 mi) northwest of Brno city centre, Moravia, Czech Republic, on the River Svratka.
According to legend, the castle Veveří ("squirrel" in Czech) was founded by Přemyslid Duke Conrad of Brno in the middle of the 11th Century, then only as a hunting lodge (?). Nevertheless, the first credible recorded mention about the castle is from the years 1213 and 1222, when King Přemysl Otakar I used the fortified castle as a prison for rebellious peers. Initially, it was apparently a wooden or masonry (?) residence situated near the Romanesque church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary west of the present compound. In the 1220s a stone castle on the extremity of the rocky promontory behind a deep moat cut out of the rock started to grow. The so-called keep is the only structure which has remained well-preserved from this oldest building stage.
King John of Bohemia pledged the castle to nobleman Jan of Vartemberk in 1311, but his son, Margrave of Moravia Charles (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV), received the property as a debt settlement in 1335. Charles´ younger brother, Margrave Jan Jindřich (John Henry), then took a fancy for Veveří Castle. He was responsible for the building of its rear part with two towers and an outer ward. In the central area around the keep, he developed the main palace, which included a large hall and the Chapel of St. Procopius (later of St. Wenceslaus). The present appearance of the compound is the result of these building activities, giving the castle its basic silhouette of a medieval fortress.
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