Czech Republic Guide
South Moravia
Bučovice
Accessible by train from Brno, the zámek (May– Sept: Tues– Sun 9am– noon & 1–4pm; April & Oct Sat & Sun only; 60Kč) at BUČOVICE, circled by kestrels, gets a fraction of the visitors of Slavkov, partly perhaps because of its unpromising exterior: a dull grey fortress with four ugly squat towers. None of it prepares you for the subtle, slender Italianate arcading of the courtyard's three-sided loggia, with each set of supporting columns topped by a different carved motif. At the centre of the courtyard a chunky stone fountain was added a few generations later, out of keeping with the rest of the masonry. The towers, the gardens and countless rooms once matched the charm and elegance of the courtyard, but the Liechtensteins, who obtained the chateau through marriage in 1597, soon turned it into little more than a storage house for the family records, scattering its original furnishings among their many other Moravian residences.
The only things they couldn't remove were the original sixteenth-century ceiling decorations, a fantastical mantle of sculpture and paint, coating just five or so rooms, none more than 6m across. The first few are just a warm-up for the thick stucco of the císařský sál, with the bejewelled relief figures of Mars, Diana, a half-naked Europa and, most magnificent of all, the Emperor Charles V trampling a turbaned Turk into the paintwork. But the decoration of the zaječí sál (The Hall of Hares) is the real star turn, an anthropomorphic work thought to be one of the few from that period still in existence. It's a comical scene, with the hares exacting their revenge on man and his closest ally, the dog. The aftermath of the hares' revolution sees them sitting in judgement (wigs and all) over their defeated enemies, as well as indulging in more highbrow activities – hare as Rembrandt, hare as scholar and so on.