Vineyards and Villages I

The Battle of Three Emperors

Tucked into the hills of the south of the Czech Republic is a field of purple flowers. If one doesn't know better than the field would appear to be like any other picturesque scene in Moravia. However, two hundred years ago this field was covered with bright red and blue uniforms of French, Russian and Austrian troops.

Napoleon met his enemies on this purple-flower field. Tolstoy wrote of this battle in War and Peace. If I'm honest, I was ignorant of the battle and its significance before our little journey to this stone monument. But after standing and gazing and the blowing flowers, imagining the young men sweating, scratching in their uniforms, the fear and dread in their eyes and hearts, I felt a new connection to a history that is not mine but has captured my imagination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Austerlitz





Lednice

Last time I was at Lednice Castle, it nearly broke my heart. Not because of its beautifully sculpted gardens or its deep emerald lake or the sprawling trees and wild flowers. No, it broke my heart to see the castle, literally, crumbling where it stood. We passed by Lednice in the fall of 2006. It looked as if it hadn't been maintained since it was built in the 17th century.

However, on our latest trip to Southern Moravia last weekend we stopped back by Lednice and to my delight it was evident that reconstruction has begun and is moving swiftly to restore this castle to its glory.

The other surprise for me was how many visitors there were strolling throughout the massive gardens. The weather was quite warm and very sunny. It appeared that anyone that lived in a 20 km radius must have decided to wait out the heat at Lednice. The Lichtenstein landowners spared no money or extravagance in their garden designs. There is even a Turkish minaret imported directly from Turkey to accentuate the extravagance.

After a long (long, long, long, long....) walk around the gardens it was time to beat the heat in our own way and drive off to find a cold shower and chilled wine.


www.zamek-lednice.info/en/