Smetana's Litomyšl

Litomyšl Castle

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, this monument is naturally the city’s dominant landmark and an essential tourist goal for visitors. This Renaissance castle has adorned Litomyšl’s skyline since halfway through the 16th century, when Vratislav II of Pernštejn had it built, likely with the thought of bringing a fragment of the Mediterranean to this East Bohemian city and thus pleasing his Spanish consort, Maria Manrique de Lara.

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Italian elegance

/ tradition meets modern

Invited to Litomyšl by Vratislav (humbly called “the Magnificent”), the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Aostalli de Sala used Renaissance castles from Moravia as inspiration for his design. This helped implant the idea of marrying novel architecture with traditional, which has remained so typical for Litomyšl. After all, the festival’s visitors know that on hot summer nights, only a sea breeze is needed to perfect the Mediterranean illusion.

sgraffitos

/ the biggest outdoor gallery

While light-colored gravel crunches with each step, low clouds of dust hover near carefully shined shoes, and dew forms on a glass of refreshing white wine, over eight thousand sgraffito pictographs naturally draw visual attention on all sides. No motif is repeated – only the picture of a key can be found three times if one looks closely. Performers have an advantage when searching for the third key as it is located in the third castle courtyard, which is usually inaccessible but serves as a backstage area during the festival.

theater

/ the Waldstein-Wartenberg heritage

A rare Baroque theater from the end of the 18th century is the castle interior’s greatest jewel. There are only a very few Baroque theaters located throughout Europe; these small, entirely wooden spaces lit by candles were often consumed in flame. After a fire, the theater on the castle’s second floor was rebuilt on the ground floor, where it survived centuries without damage, along with its stage technology and a complete set of scenery by Josef Platzer. He also painted decorations for Vienna’s Burgtheater and Prague’s Estates Theater.