Lešná Castle and Park

History of the castle

The castle in Lešná near Valašské Meziříčí was the family manor of the Czech noble family of Kinsky, who gave it the form it has today. The historic interiors in the style of Late Renaissance have been restored to their original splendor. You will also enjoy the fantastic English landscape park with rare shrubs.

The history of the castle starts in the mid-14th century, when it was booked in the land registry as a free manor in 1355. In the first half of the 15th century, the estate included other villages in the vicinity, including Perná, Vysoká, Lhotka and later Příluky (added in the last third of the 16th century). The estate was held by several different dynasties, including the Pražmas of  Bílkov (1481–1628), the Podstatskýs of Prusinovice (1684–1740), the Bees of Chrostina (1793–1865) and the last noble owners were the Kinskys of Vchynice and Tetov (1888–1945).
In the middle ages, Lešná was a fortress surrounded by a moat (documented in 1415), which was later converted into a one-storey, four-winged Renaissance castle with an arcaded courtyard.
 
Another reconstruction didn’t take place until the latter half of the 18th century, when Rudolf Podstatsky of Prusinovice renovated the castle in the Baroque style. The lord significantly transformed the interior of the building; the nobles used 13 rooms in the first floor and there was a new southwest wing called piano nobile, built in the ostentatious Baroque style for the purposes of representation. Major changes were later made also in the landscaping, when the owners replaced the farm buildings in the front of the castle with an English landscape garden. The first phase of this project dates back to the beginning of the 19th century.
The garden was finished by the Kinsky family, who also gave the castle its current Neoclassical appearance with many romanticizing Neo Gothic elements. The Kinsky family resided in Lešná until the end of the World War II in 1945, when the castle was confiscated on the basis of Beneš decrees.  

From 1948, the premises were used as a secondary school and a kindergarten for the next thirty years. In 1975, both the castle and the park were entrusted to the District History Museum, now the Wallachian Regional Museum.
At this time, the premises were in a state of severe disrepair and  had to be renovated to a large extent. Since 1983, the museum has restored the structural stability of the building, reinstalled the original wooden ceilings and repaired the roof and the facade, the last of which was completed in 1997. The interiors were renovated in the next phase of this major project and in 2011, the castle was open to the public as a national heritage site. Part of the original furniture and castle equipment are now part of the museum exhibitions, which include other interesting displays.

Castle Park History

The English landscape park surrounding the Lešná Castle was founded in the middle of the 19th century in line with the gardening trend of creating idyllic, asymmetrical, romantic gardens.lovině 19. století. There was an ornamental garden in its place, south of the farmhouse, even before the park was established. Jiří Bees, the lord of the estate, had planted here the oldest native trees (such as ash, hornbeam and linden) as well as imported deciduous trees (Japanese pagoda tree, gleditsia) and conifers (Douglas fir, larch, Eastern hemlock).
The new owners of the estate, the old Czech noble family of Kinsky, notably the imperial chamberlain Count August Leopold Kinsky and his son Filip put a lot of care into the garden in the 1880s and the 1890s. They brought in a number of foreign trees ((for example Turkish hazel, false cypress, catalpa, hackberry, the tulip tree, wingnut and Kentucky coffee tree) and kept both the castle and the garden in excellent condition. They continuously improved the property: they developed the game reserve, started a fruit tree nursery and built three new glasshouses. A new water pipeline, put in in 1894, allowed for the creation of a round garden fountain in front of the garden facade. Then between the two World Wars, the owners cut
In the interwar period, the owners fell some mature trees in the alley to open up a view at the game reserve, and had it planted with rhododendrons and azaleas. In 1925 they added two ponds and a pheasantry and built a tennis court and a bowling alley, which made the outdoor area very popular.
When the castle was confiscated by the Communist government after the war (1945), the  property slowly fell into disrepair. The park was open to the public at all times and the government did no maintenance here until the 1970s. Nobody looked after the trees or planted new shrubs and the park was overgrown with self-seeding plants. The local agricultural cooperative even dumped their silage here. This complete lack of management had a negative effect on the health of the trees. Many of them died and had to be cut down. Self-seeding woody plants pushed out the cultivated species and many trees died due to the lack of care.
In 1975, the park was put under the administration of the National History Institute in Vsetín, which set on a journey of systematic regeneration of the park in 1985. This included cultivation measures, felling old trees and planting new ones, repair of the fencing and of the walls around the park and the remediation of the ground, including the removal of black dumps. The fountain, which had not been working since 1975, was demolished.
However, a revitalization of the park of the largest scale in its history did not take place until the museum managed to get a subsidy from the State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic around 2010. The unwanted plants that had been self-seeding in the park were eradicated and a number of new plantings were carried out. During the project, 894 trees (over 10 cm in diameter) were felled and 2.354 new woody plants were planted. The total cost of the park regeneration under the administration of the museum is almost 6 million CZK.
A festive re-opening of the park to the public on October 1, 2000 marked the culmination of this extremely long project. Mr. Christian Kinsky from Heidenreichstein with his sister Elisabeth Kinsky cut the ribbon as representatives of the old Czech dynasty of Kinskys of Vchynice and Tetov, the last nobility who owned and looked after this beautiful park.

We are sorry but the wheelchair lift is currently out of order!

Ceník zámek a park Lešná

Návštěvní řád zámku Lešná

The Renovated premises of the Lešná Castle are available for rent. They can be used for weddings and other social events, rooms on the ground floor is suited for conferences, banquets and other festivities.

COMMERCIAL RENT

You can rent the hall for a conference or a celebration. The hall is equipped with wifi, a data projector and a TV screen. A kitchen with appliances is available, along with a cloakroom and a bathroom. You can also rent the park - terms are subject to agreement, there is no set price per hour.

CAPACITY OF ROOMS:
White Hall - seats up to 50, standard setup 12 seats
Balcony  - up to 15
Park - unlimited seating
Atrium - up to 20
 

PRICE 500 Kč/hr

WEDDINGS

You can rent the White Hall for a wedding ceremony after you book a date at the Lešná Town Registry Office. Please contact the Castle Administration well in advance, thank you.
PRICE 3.000 Kč

WEDDING DATES 2025:

• February 15
• March 15
• April 12
• May 10
• May 31
• June 28
• July 12
• August 2
• August 23
• September 20
• October 11
• November 15

Lešná Town Registry
Phone: +420 571 635 022
 
Additional Services
- subject to agreement, room setup prior and post-event 270 Kč/hr
- setup and use of data projector can be provided for extra charge 200 Kč/hr
 
The rental price includes basic cleaning fees.

If you are interested in renting space at the castle, please contact us and we will be happy to show you around. We will do our best to meet your needs.

Veronika Stodůlková, Administrator – Rentals
Phone: +420 734 420 009
E-mail: zamek.lesna@muzeumvalassko.cz