Tugendhat Villa in Brno

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno, designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is an outstanding example of the international style in the modern movement in architecture as it developed in Europe in the 1920s. Its particular value lies in the application of innovative spatial and aesthetic concepts that aim to satisfy new lifestyle needs by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by modern industrial production.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1052

The Tugendhat Villa is a masterpiece of the Modern Movement in architecture. It was created by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. 

The building in Brno was built in 1930 for Fritz Tugendhat, owner of a Brno textile factory.

Exquisite materials and modern technologies were used in the construction of this house. Its main structure is made of reinforced concrete with steel frames. The exterior of the house is painted white. The back wall of the living area is made of onyx panels from the Atlas Mountains. 

The original furniture was also designed by Mies van der Rohe, such as the so-called Tugendhat chair. 

The house had central heating and an air-conditioning system with a regulated fine-spray humidifying chamber. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/tugendhatvillabrno.html

Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora

This pilgrimage church, built in honour of St John of Nepomuk, stands at Zelená Hora, not far from Ždár nad Sázavou in Moravia. Constructed at the beginning of the 18th century on a star-shaped plan, it is the most unusual work by the great architect Jan Blazej Santini, whose highly original style falls between neo-Gothic and Baroque.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/690

The Pilgrimage Church at Zelena Hora was designed by the Czech-Italian architect Jan Blazej Santini Aichl, who delivered a masterpiece out of a combination of gothic and baroque styles.

The church was the first major shrine to St. John (Jan) of Nepomuk, a local martyr who had died in 1393. Abbot Vaclav Vejmiuva of the nearby Cistercian Abbey was a great follower of St. John, and had the church constructed in close collaboration with the architect Santini.

Already from its beginnings (1721) the church was meant as a place of pilgrimage. The cloister, which encircles the chapel and is based on a ten-point-star groundplan, was completed later (in 1769). 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/stjohnofnepomuk.html

Litomyšl Castle

Litomyšl Castle was originally a Renaissance arcade-castle of the type first developed in Italy and then adopted and greatly developed in central Europe in the 16th century. Its design and decoration are particularly fine, including the later High-Baroque features added in the 18th century. It preserves intact the range of ancillary buildings associated with an aristocratic residence of this type.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/901

Litomysl Castle is a monumental Renaissance castle dating from the years 1568-1581. It is an outstanding and immaculately preserved example of the arcade castle, a type of building first developed in Italy and modified in the Czech lands to create an evolved form of special architectural quality. 

The noble family of Pernstejn's rebuilt the original Mediaeval castle into a Renaissance castle in the second half of the 16th century. Despite of later reconstructions of interiors especially at the end of the 18th century the appearance of the castle remained almost intact including the unique scoring decoration of facades and fronton. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/litomysl.html

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the ruling dukes of Liechtenstein transformed their domains in southern Moravia into a striking landscape. It married Baroque architecture (mainly the work of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach) and the classical and neo-Gothic style of the castles of Lednice and Valtice with countryside fashioned according to English romantic principles of landscape architecture. At 200 km2 , it is one of the largest artificial landscapes in Europe.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/763

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is an artifical landscape of 200 km2 that evolved during the Enlightenment under the guidance of the House of Liechtenstein. The design started in the 17th century with the creation of avenues connecting Valtice with other parts of the estate. During the 18th century a framework of avenues and paths providing vistas and rides was developed, imposing order on nature in the manner of the Renaissance artists and architects.

In the 19th century major projects were started: the landscape became fashioned according to English romantic principles of landscape architecture under supervision landscape artist Bernhard Petri. 

The landscape park has two centres:

- Valtice Castle and town 

- Lednice Castle and village (on the postcard)

These two localities are connected by Bezruè Avenue. There is also one more village in the park - Hlohovec. The surrounding area is covered with pines, ponds and holds numerous bigger or smaller pavilions scattered throughout the whole complex, often serving as hunting lodges. Baroque and Romantic elements are mingled. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/lednicevaltice.html

Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec

Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation of the silver mines. In the 14th century it became a royal city endowed with monuments that symbolized its prosperity. The Church of St Barbara, a jewel of the late Gothic period, and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec, which was restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early 18th century, were to influence the architecture of central Europe. These masterpieces today form part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with some particularly fine private dwellings.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/732

Kutna Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of Saint Barbara and the Cathedral of our Lady at Sedlec symbolize the wealth this city derived from silver mining. The earliest traces of silver have been found dating back to the 10th century. The silver boom started in the 13th century.

The town of Kutná Hora has several interesting late medieval buildings, built in Gothic style. They include the Italian Court (location of the Mint) and the Little Castle.

The late Gothic Saint Barbara Church dates from the 1380s. Saint Barbara is the patron saint of miners.

The Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec was rebuilt by Jan Blazej Santini in the Gothicizing Baroque style (early 18th century). It lies 1.5km outside of Kutna Hora, and was part of a Cistercian monastery. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/kutnahora.html

Jewish Quarter and St Procopius' Basilica in Třebíč

The ensemble of the Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery and the Basilica of St Procopius in Třebíč are reminders of the co-existence of Jewish and Christian cultures from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The Jewish Quarter bears outstanding testimony to the different aspects of the life of this community. St Procopius' Basilica, built as part of the Benedictine monastery in the early 13th century, is a remarkable example of the influence of Western European architectural heritage in this region.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1078

The Jewish Quarter and St. Procopius Basilica of Trebic bear witness to the coexistence of and interchange of values between the Jewish and Christian cultures from the Middle Ages until the Second World War. 

The St. Procopius Basilica originally was constructed in the 13th century as part of a Benedictine Abbey. It is made of granite and sandstone, and has both Romanesque and early Gothic features. The existence of the Abbey at this site stimulated the development of a marketplace, which attracted among others also Jewish merchants.

Trebic's Jewish Quarter is the most representative in its kind in Central Europe, It is considered the most complete, including synagogues, Jewish schools, a hospital and a factory. The quarter has a characteristic condominium structure: there were often several owners in one house and buildings were internally subdivided.

Above the Jewish Quarter is the Jewish Cemetery, consisting of about 4000 tombstones. All Jewish inhabitants were deported in WWII, nobody returned.

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/trebic.html

Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc

This memorial column, erected in the early years of the 18th century, is the most outstanding example of a type of monument specific to central Europe. In the characteristic regional style known as Olomouc Baroque and rising to a height of 35 m, it is decorated with many fine religious sculptures, the work of the distinguished Moravian artist Ondrej Zahner.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/859

The Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc is a work of art celebrating the power and glory of the Roman Catholic Church. Its construction started in 1717. The total height is 35 meters.

The column is the work of the master stonemason Václav Render, who designed it and mostly paid for it himself. After his death in 1733 he left his fortune to the city of Olomouc. The artist Ondrej Zahner finished his work between 1745 and 1752.

The column is the most splendid example of a Baroque column construction craze all over Central Europe, which started out with Plague columns decorating many town centres in the 17th century and later turned to Trinity columns. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/holytrinitycolumnolomouc.html

Holašovice Historic Village

Holašovice is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a traditional central European village. It has a large number of outstanding 18th- and 19th-century vernacular buildings in a style known as 'South Bohemian folk Baroque', and preserves a ground plan dating from the Middle Ages.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/861

Holasovice is a historic rural village which has preserved its typical vernacular architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is located in the south of the Czech Republic. 

From the 16th century on, settlers from Bavaria and Austria arrived. They brought with them the tradition of masonry building for domestic structures. 

The village was deserted after the Second World War, allowing its medieval plan and vernacular buildings in the South Bohemian Folk or Rural Baroque style to remain intact. It was restored and repopulated from 1990. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/holasovice.html

Historic Centre of Telč

The houses in Telc, which stands on a hilltop, were originally built of wood. After a fire in the late 14th century, the town was rebuilt in stone, surrounded by walls and further strengthened by a network of artificial ponds. The town's Gothic castle was reconstructed in High Gothic style in the late 15th century.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/621

The Historic Centre of Telc is a medieval planned town that has preserved its original layout and the castle-settlement relationship very clearly. The quality of its architecture is high, particularly the Renaissance market place and chateau. 

The triangular market place possesses great beauty and harmony as well as great cultural importance, surrounded as it is by intact and well preserved Renaissance buildings with a dazzling variety of facades. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/telc.html

Historic Centre of Prague

Built between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Old Town, the Lesser Town and the New Town speak of the great architectural and cultural influence enjoyed by this city since the Middle Ages. The many magnificent monuments, such as Hradcani Castle, St Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge and numerous churches and palaces, built mostly in the 14th century under the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/616

The Historic Centre of Prague played a prominent role in medieval Central Europe. It has seen continuous urban development from the Middle Ages to the present, resulting in an architectural ensemble of outstanding quality. 

The WHS area consists of the following parts:

1. Old Town (Stare Mesto), with the Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock and Charles Bridge

2. Lesser Town (Male Strana) on the left (west) bank of the river Vltava and below the Prague Castle 

3. New Town (Nove Mesto), including the Wenceslas Square 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/prague.html

Historic Centre of Český Krumlov

Situated on the banks of the Vltava river, the town was built around a 13th-century castle with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. It is an outstanding example of a small central European medieval town whose architectural heritage has remained intact thanks to its peaceful evolution over more than five centuries.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/617

The Historic Centre of Cesky Krumlov is best known for the fine architecture and art of the old town and Krumlov Castle. Construction of the town and castle began in the late 13th century at a ford in the Vltava River, which was important in trade routes in Bohemia. The town became the seat of the Duchy of Krumlov. 

Between 1938 and 1945 it was annexed by Nazi Germany as part of the so-called Sudetenland. The town's German-speaking population was expelled after liberation by the American Army during World War II and it was restored to Czechoslovakia. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/ceskykrumlov.html

Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava, at the foot of the Chriby mountain range which dominates the central part of Moravia. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/860

The Gardens and Castle at Kromeríz are a Baroque aristocratic ensemble of residence and pleasure garden. The Pleasure Garden is a rare and complete example of a Baroque garden. It was the creative design of Filiberto Lucchese and the execution of his design by Giovanni Pietro Tencalla. Count Karel Liechtenstein-Castelcorn acted as their patron, renovating the palace in a Baroque style in 1664.

The castle used to be the principal residence of the bishops and (since 1777) archbishops of Olomouc. It houses a splendid art collection, with works by Dutch, Flemish, and Italian masters, many of them acquired by Bishop Karel in 1673. The Kromeríz musical archive is outstanding too, as is the Library. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/kromeriz.html