In the riding halls of the Lednice Castle, there are new exhibitions worth half a billion

Lednice (Břeclavsko) - Nearly half a billion crowns were spent on three new exhibitions that opened to the public today in the riding halls of the castle in Lednice in Břeclav. People can view the spaces over the weekend, and starting from spring, they should be accessible every day. Miroslav Soja from the Multifunctional Center Lednice, of which the exhibitions are a part, told ČTK.
    The reconstruction of the riding halls, which are nicknamed the Palace of Horses and are larger than the adjacent castle, cost almost half a billion crowns. Of that, 85% was funded by the European Union, with the remainder covered by the state.
    "We welcomed the first visitors from the general public. Local residents from Lednice were able to see it last weekend," said Soja. "Visitors positively noted that we did not disrupt the architecture of the space and that the beauty of the stables remained preserved, even though we combined it with a modern exhibition featuring many modern and interactive moving elements," he added.
    The first of the exhibitions presents the restoration of the entire complex. Among other things, this part includes a model of the Lednice stallion. It was a breed of noble horses bred in the Lichtenstein estate for the stables of European monarchs. It became extinct with the arrival of communism in Czechoslovakia.
    Another permanent exhibition is called "Through the Landscape of Parks" and presents the Lednice-Valtice area as a floodplain area modified during the Lichtensteins into the form of an expansive English park. It includes, among many small monuments, a 60-meter high observation tower called the Minaret, built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The exhibition includes its model with scaffolding showing how workers once transported hundred-kilogram blocks to the top of the tower during its construction.
    The third exhibition mainly presents the Lednice-Valtice area through photographs as part of the Biosphere Reserve Lower Morava. It includes the nearby Pálava Protected Landscape Area near Mikulov and the Soutok forest, which lies at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje rivers. It is an area with numerous rare plants and many species of water birds.
    Adults will have an entrance fee of 60 crowns, while children, seniors, and students will pay half. Last year, 376,500 people visited the Lednice Castle, making it the most visited monument in the Czech Republic.