Fewer people visited South Moravian monuments than last year

"We evaluate this year's season as successful, although some monuments experienced a slight decline in attendance compared to last year," said Dagmar Šnajdarová from the NPÚ in Kroměříž.

The most visited is traditionally the castle in Lednice, which is one of those that saw fewer visitors year-on-year, specifically 43,000 fewer than last year. "The reason is definitely the weather during the main season, when there was great heat, and especially tours like the Minaret or Janohrad, which are more demanding physically, experienced a decline in interest. However, the season is not over yet, and we are seeing significant interest from visitors on weekends in November, and we will be open until mid-December, which might stabilize the numbers somewhat," said the castle administrator Ivana Holásková to ČTK.

Aside from Lednice, there were slightly fewer visitors at the castles of Bítov and Pernštejn and the chateaus in Bučovice, Milotice, and Vranov nad Dyjí. Fewer people also visited the villa Stiassni in Brno.

"We consider the season at Bítov to be successful, even though the number of visitors dropped by about eight percent. We attribute this to higher temperatures in the summer months when visitors preferred to swim in the Vranov area. There was likely also a trend of cheaper foreign vacations," stated Šnajdarová.

The third most visited monument in the region became the state castle Veveří, which, despite the hot weather, had 12,000 more visitors than in the first ten months of last year. The restoration of the castle, which basically deteriorated from 1989 to 1999, continues this year with the renovation of the last remaining unrepaired roofs of the castle.