The first historical record of the castle in Lednice comes from 1222. At this time, a gothic fortress and courtyard stood here, which Czech king, Václav (Wenceslas) I, granted to Austrian nobleman Siegfried Sirotek.

At the end of the 13th century, the Lichtenstein family became owners of the whole of Lednice and nearby Mikulov. Originally from Styria in Austria, over time they expanded their ownership of land on both sides of the Moravia-Austria border. They become owners of Lednice in 1322.

Later to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country, the Lichtenstein family had no special status in the Middle Ages and their properties were much more modest. And it was in Austria that they owned large swathes of land.

Family members most often worked in the military and in the Renaissance period in the business world. From the second half of the 15th century, family members began to be represented in the highest offices of the land.

The fundamental change in the family’s status happened with the brothers Karel, Maximilián and Gundakar of Lichtenstein. Karel’s and Maximilián’s marriages into the wealthy Moravian Černohorský family of Boskovice brought advantages to the family. The brothers were originally Lutheran Protestants like their father and grandfathers, but soon converted to Catholicism, paving the way for moving into the political sphere, particularly for Karel who later worked in the Court of Emperor Rudolf II. In 1604 he became Governor of Moravia and in 1608 he was elevated into the aristocracy by future king Matyáš II and granted the Opava princedom.

During the Protestant rebellion, he stood on the side of the Habsburgs and took part in the Battle of White Mountain, after which he received governorship of Bohemia. From 1622 he was vice-regent of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

The Lichtensteins became the richest family in Moravia after the defeat of the Protestant Rebellion in 1620 and the confiscation of the properties of participants in the revolt, surpassing the Žerotins. Their huge swathes of land brought them great profit and allowed them to make grandiose building plans for Lednice.

In the 16th century, Hartmann II of Lichtenstein probably had the water tower that had stood there since the Middle Ages demolished and replaced with a Renaissance castle. At the turn of the 17th century, this building too was demolished. It was replaced by a Baroque residence with a vast architecturally designed garden and monumental hippodrome designed by Jan Bernard Fischer of Erlach, which has been preserved with only minor changes to the present day. The construction work of the time also made its mark on the village of Lednice and is forever associated with the art lover Jan (John) Adam of Lichtenstein.

After the mid-18th century, the castle was renovated once more and in 1815 its front wings were removed, which had been part of the Baroque castle.

Lednice as it looks today was formed in the reconstruction work that took place from 1846 to 1858 when the castle was renovated once more in the then-modern neo-Gothic style.

The noble family, whose political and economic ambitions were shaken by the French Revolution, now looked back at their era of fame and fortune and in the mid-19th century returned to the art of the Middle Ages.

The resident of Lednice at that time, Alois Josef II of Lichtenstein (1796-1858), a diplomat who worked in London, entrusted Viennese architect George Wingelmüller in 1845 to renovate his summer Lednice residence in neo-Gothic style.

After the premature death of Wingelmüller, the work was finished by his assistant architect, Jan Heidrich in the spirit of his teacher.

When the Renaissance castle was built, a garden was also formed, which was converted in the 1630s into a vast Baroque park. Prince Alois I extended the park in neo-Classical style with the addition of Romantic architectural structures – the Chinese Pavilion, the Moorish House and the minaret visible from the castle. The architect was Josef Hardtmuth and construction took place from 1797 to 1802. The unstable boggy ground required the construction of foundations made from 500 alderwood piles and 98 oak planks. The first floor was host to eight rooms decorated by Arabian ornaments. The tower has three galleries. The unique look out tower is 59 metres, 39 centimetres high and its construction cost one million florins.

In 1805, Prince Jan I of Lichtenstein gave his business and garden managers the task of converting the marshy plains along the river Dyje into a natural park in the English style. By 1811, the pond had been deepened and 16 islands created and the Dyje was diverted along a new channel running past the minaret. The park has an area of 156 hectares and the castle pond is 29 hectares. Hardtmuth complemented the vast garden with Romantic follies, summer houses, shrines and other pieces of Romantic architecture.

This park studded with architecture is spread out from the village of Lednice to Valtice and right up to today’s border with Austria. The area centres on the road linking the Lednice and Valtice castles. Its approximate centre is made up of three large ponds – Hlohovecký, Prostřední and Mlýnský.