“Starý hrad” vineyard track

History

In 1703 the castle in Bzenec became the estate of Count Erdman Kryštof Pruskovský. He had a refined taste and sense of arts. He had the ruins on the desolate peek, where the old castle stood a long ago, planted with vines and so the vineyards covered the hillside. In the same year he had a Baroque chapel built on the hill and dedicated it to St Florian and St Sebastian. Material from the old castle was used for construction. But the chapel was frequently struck by lightning. On 12 July 1731 its tower and roof were set on fire by lightning and destroyed. The chapel was reconstructed at the expense of the village several times and the last overall reconstruction took place in 1852. Strong windstorms damaged considerably the chapel windows and thus two thirds of them were walled up in the sixties and the remaining ones fitted with metal shutters. On 15 September 1915 the roof of the chapel was set on fire by lightning again. The roof of the tower caught fire from it and its exterior was destroyed. Only the bell remained undamaged. The chapel was repaired again. In 1945 the retreating Nazi troops blew up the chapel and the ruins only remained on the hill for years and years until its reconstruction in 2017, which was done with respect to the building plans from 1916 that remained preserved.

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The present

In 2015 the reconstruction of vineyards near the Old Castle began. The land was much neglected before, which was to the detriment of that place, so important in the past. Our winery has decided to renew its fame and so the first grading took place in autumn 2015.

In spring 2016 new vineries were planted, with about 7,500 young plants. The most frequent varieties were Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, and Riesling. Also some interesting historical varieties such as Portugieser Grau, Red Riesling, Blue Kadarka, Red White Veltliner, Savagnin Blanc, and others were planted. The new vineyard will be an integral part of the entertainment-education footpath that we are going to build here in the future. The entertainment vineyard will be the right thing for your extraordinary experiences, tourism or celebrations.

In 2017 reconstruction continued successfully and irrigation was installed on the hill to give the young plants sufficient water to grow. In 2019 we continued to grow the planted varieties and installed a netting to cut locust posts, traditionally, as used to be done once.